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Uzbekistan
Foreign Relations
Uzbekistan's location, bordering the volatile Middle East, as
well as its rich natural resources and commercial potential, thrust
it into the international arena almost immediately upon gaining
independence. During the early 1990s, wariness of renewed Russian
control led Uzbekistan increasingly to seek ties with other countries.
Indeed, little over a year after independence, Uzbekistan had
been recognized by 120 countries and had opened or planned to
open thirty-nine foreign embassies. Experts believed that in this
situation Uzbekistan would turn first to neighboring countries
such as Iran and Turkey. Although the cultural kinship and proximity
of those countries has encouraged closer relations, Uzbekistan
also has shown eagerness to work with a range of partners to create
a complex web of interrelationships that includes its immediate
Central Asian neighbors, Russia and other nations of the CIS,
and the immediate Middle Eastern world, with the goal of becoming
an integral part of the international community on its own terms.
Data as of March 1996
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