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Uzbekistan
Western Europe and Japan
In the first four years of independence, the West occupied an
increasing place in Uzbekistan's foreign policy. As relations
with its immediate neighbors have been expanding, pragmatic geopolitical
and economic considerations have come to dominate ethnic and religious
identities as motivations for policy decisions. This approach
has increased the interest of the Uzbekistani government in expanding
ties with the West and with Japan.
In the early 1990s, Uzbekistan became a member of the United
Nations, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF--see
Glossary), the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe
(OSCE, formerly the Conference on Security and Cooperation in
Europe, CSCE--see Glossary), the North Atlantic Cooperation Council,
and a number of other international organizations. In that context,
Uzbekistan is the beneficiary of several aid projects of varying
magnitudes. The World Bank has designed missions and projects
totaling hundreds of millions of dollars for such programs as
the Cotton Sub-Sector Development Program to improve farm productivity,
income, and international cotton marketing conditions and a program
to address the problems of the Aral Sea. In April 1995, the World
Bank allocated US$160 million in credit to Uzbekistan. In February
1995, the IMF approved a loan to support the Uzbekistani government's
macroeconomic stabilization and systemic reform program. The first
installment of the loan, roughly US$75 million, will be funded
over a ten-year period; the second installment is to follow six
months later, provided the government's macroeconomic stabilization
program is being implemented. The European Bank for Reconstruction
and Development (EBRD) likewise approved several million dollars
for projects in Uzbekistan. These signs of greater involvement
by the international community in Uzbekistan are largely stimulated
by the political stability that the government has been able to
maintain and in disregard of the human rights record, but many
investors still are cautious.
Data as of March 1996
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