Uzbeks, Turkmen Wary of Russian-Led Economic Forum

While Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan have been invited to send delegates the annual Petersburg International Economic Forum, analysts say the two Central Asian states will have little to gain from the Russian-led debate.

The forum, which takes place in St Petersburg on June 16 and 17, will discuss global economic conditions as well as issues concerning the former Soviet states such as oil and gas.

NBCentralAsia experts say the Turkmen and Uzbek governments are less and less interested in events like this, since both countries have distanced themselves to varying extents from former Soviet economic and security blocs, whose agendas will dominate at the forum.

Annadurdy Hadjiev, a Turkmen economic analyst based in Bulgaria, says Turkmenistan’s main focus of interest is likely to be in discussing how to make oil and gas transport routes more secure, an issue it has raised before.

Tashpulat Yuldashev, an Uzbek political analyst living in the United States, says Tashkent has few reasons to discuss global economic development since the Uzbek economy is isolated and uncompetitive. He added that the political relationship with Moscow was going through a difficult phase, making the St Petersburg forum even less attractive to Uzbekistan.

This article was produced as part of IWPR's News Briefing Central Asia output, funded by the National Endowment for Democracy.