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James D. Durso is the Managing Director of Corsair LLC, a supply chain consultancy. In 2013 to2015, he was the Chief Executive Officer of AKM…
On 29 January 2026, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan welcomed Uzbekistan’s President Shavkat Mirziyoyev to Ankara for the fourth meeting of the Türkiye–Uzbekistan High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council.
The two leaders have met frequently over the past decade, including Erdogan’s working visit to Samarkand in 2016; Mirziyoyev’s state visit to Ankara in 2017; their March 2022 meeting in Tashkent, where they announced the upgrading of bilateral ties to a “comprehensive strategic partnership”; the June 2024 meeting in Ankara, during which they signed more than 20 bilateral agreements; and the Kazan BRICS Summit in October 2024.
A leaders’ meeting rarely concludes without a flurry of agreements, and Erdogan and Mirziyoyev were no exception. They signed approximately a dozen bilateral agreements covering healthcare; education and military medicine; economic and financial cooperation; mining projects; international transport corridors; the establishment of free and special economic zones; migration and the return of citizens; the development of Uzbekistan’s light industry; and technical education, vocational training, and exchanges between higher-education institutions.
In addition, both sides agreed to expand cooperation in nuclear safety, migration policy, light industry, and foreign policy coordination.
Erdogan and Mirziyoyev also signed a joint declaration reaffirming their commitment to the comprehensive strategic partnership established in 2022. The declaration outlined mechanisms for deepening cooperation across multiple sectors and formalized long-term strategic planning. Notably, the two countries agreed to strengthen cooperation in the religious sphere and adopted a cultural cooperation plan for 2026–2027.
The leaders further announced the creation of a “4+4” strategic cooperation mechanism, designed to enhance coordination among their foreign affairs, defense, interior, and intelligence institutions within a single framework.
The leaders highlighted steady growth in mutual trade, a recent doubling of joint ventures, and the expansion of direct air links. Today, approximately 1,900 Turkish companies operate in Uzbekistan, with a total investment volume of about US$5.6 billion, while nearly 90 weekly flights connect major cities in the two countries.
Between 2017 and 2025, bilateral trade nearly doubled, reaching US$3 billion. The two governments announced their intention to raise this figure to US$5 billion in the coming years. In 2024, Uzbekistan’s principal exports to Türkiye included metals, textiles, mineral products, plastics and rubber, and agricultural products. Türkiye’s exports to Uzbekistan consisted mainly of machinery, chemical products, textiles, metals, plastics and rubber, and motor vehicles.
Given their geographic positions, Türkiye and Uzbekistan share a strong interest in geopolitical and regional cooperation. Mirziyoyev publicly emphasized Türkiye’s rising global influence, describing it as “one of the world’s new geopolitical power hubs.” Both leaders underscored their alignment on regional issues and the growing importance of cooperation within the Turkic world.
The Organization of Turkic States (OTS), founded in 2009, has recently experienced a revival, evolving from a primarily cultural forum into an increasingly geopolitical organization. Türkiye has sought to transform the OTS from a symbolic platform into a strategic Eurasian axis, using soft power, military cooperation, and economic integration to help fill the regional vacuum created by Russia’s preoccupation with its war in Ukraine.
Through the OTS, Türkiye has pursued a more ambitious foreign policy, expanding its influence southward and eastward toward Russia and China, while offering Central Asian republics strategic hedging options vis-à-vis China, Russia, Europe, and the United States. The organization also reflects the republics’ shared interest in strengthening regional resilience against externally driven agendas, intra-regional fragmentation, and natural disasters.
Türkiye and the Central Asian republics are in active earthquake zones. Except for Astana, Kazakhstan the capital cities of the republics are in particularly vulnerable areas. Uzbekistan retains vivid memories of the 1966 Tashkent earthquake, while the 2023 Türkiye–Syria earthquake, which claimed more than 50,000 lives, underscored the region’s shared exposure to seismic risk.
Greater emphasis on cooperation in emergency response is therefore warranted. Preventive measures—notably the adoption and enforcement of earthquake-resistant building and construction codes—are equally critical. Japan, which is expanding its presence in Central Asia and is a global leader in earthquake-resilient construction, could provide valuable technical expertise to Türkiye and the Central Asian republics.
In the cultural and humanitarian sphere, the January 2026 meetings reaffirmed commitments to joint cultural programs, educational exchanges, and broader people-to-people ties. As part of a broader initiative to establish reciprocal educational institutions, Erdogan and Mirziyoyev attended the foundation-laying ceremony for the Uzbekistan State School in Istanbul.
Uzbekistan became a full member of the OTS in 2019, marking a significant milestone in the deepening of its cooperation with Türkiye and other Turkic-speaking states. Since then, Uzbekistan–Türkiye relations within the OTS have evolved from primarily cultural engagement into a strategic, multifaceted partnership, spanning economic, political, transport, and institutional cooperation.
Relations between the two countries have increasingly taken on the characteristics of a coordinated leadership model within the OTS. This reflects growing mutual trust and complementary roles: Türkiye as an economic and geopolitical anchor—and a NATO member; Uzbekistan as a central hub in Central Asia and a key entrepôt to Afghanistan.
High-level trilateral meetings—such as the Türkiye–Azerbaijan–Uzbekistan summit in Ankara in January 2025—produced the Ankara Declaration, which called for deeper integration in trade, investment, transport, and energy, particularly through projects such as the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (the Middle Corridor) and the Zangezur Corridor.
Trade between Uzbekistan and Türkiye operates under both a most-favored-nation regime and a Preferential Trade Agreement, contributing to its sustained expansion. OTS initiatives—including the Simplified Customs Corridor, which entered into force in November 2024, and e-Permit digital road-transport integration—aim to reduce border delays and lower non-tariff trade barriers. The World Bank has identified border delays as a major source of trade friction, as they slow commerce, raise costs, and constrain economic growth.
Within the OTS framework, the Turkic Investment Fund was established with authorized capital of US$600 million to finance small and medium-sized enterprises and cross-border projects in transport, logistics, and energy, thereby strengthening economic integration among member states.
Uzbekistan has also promoted broader multilateral cooperation within the OTS, advancing initiatives in science, education, digitalization, and youth engagement. Notably, Uzbekistan will chair the Turkic Universities Union in 2025–26, further institutionalizing academic collaboration. Uzbek leaders have additionally emphasized the need to enhance sustainable development and collective responses to systemic threats, including pandemics, environmental challenges, and humanitarian disasters.
Within the Organization of Turkic States, Uzbekistan–Türkiye relations have emerged as a dynamic and strategically significant partnership. Their cooperation combines deepening economic ties, infrastructure integration, institutional coordination, and cultural diplomacy, moving well beyond symbolic affinity toward practical, results-oriented collaboration in trade, transport, finance, and regional connectivity.
James D. Durso is the Managing Director of Corsair LLC, a supply chain consultancy. In 2013 to2015, he was the Chief Executive Officer of AKM…
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