Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan have elevated bilateral ties with a Treaty on Eternal Friendship signed by Presidents Ilham Aliyev and Shavkat Mirziyoyev in Tashkent on 23 August. The leaders also agreed to expand trade, investment, transport, and regional cooperation.
During his state visit to Uzbekistan, President Ilham Aliyev and First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva were welcomed by Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev and his wife, Ziroatkhon Mirziyoyeva.
Aliyev and Mirziyoyev later held talks focused on turning the countries’ strategic partnership into major economic and infrastructure projects.
“We have brought our bilateral relations to an absolute historic peak,” Mirziyoyev said, describing the treaty as a major milestone in relations between the two countries.
Trade and investment plans
Mirziyoyev said mutual trade had tripled over the past five years, with the two sides targeting at least $1 billion in annual trade turnover.
“The basis for this is accelerating the process to reach that trade turnover. We must reach it,” he said.
Aliyev said around $160 million of the fund had already been allocated and described the Uzbek-Azerbaijani fund as “the most effective and result-oriented.”
He said planned investments in Uzbekistan's tourism sector alone could reach $5 billion, alongside major hotel and residential projects in Tashkent.
The leaders also focused on expanding transport and transit links through the Caspian Sea.
Mirziyoyev called for faster development of a joint Caspian shipping fleet and proposed creating a dedicated Uzbek-Azerbaijani corridor with a single operator.
Aliyev said Azerbaijan's shipyard was operating at full capacity, with around 10 vessels under construction, and called for an Uzbek transit ferry to be prioritised.
The Azerbaijani President also said work on the Zangezur Corridor was advancing, with the main Azerbaijani section expected to be completed next year and construction underway on the Nakhchivan section.
Aliyev thanked Uzbekistan for its role in the reconstruction of Garabagh, highlighting the Mirzo Ulugbek School in Fuzuli and a garment factory in Khankendi.
“Creating jobs, especially for women in the Garabagh region, is of immense importance right now,” Aliyev said.
The two countries also plan to expand cooperation in automotive manufacturing, agriculture, education, culture and sports.
Mirziyoyev proposed a joint film about poets Nizami Ganjavi and Alisher Navoi, as well as a “Two Countries- One Championship” programme around the upcoming World Youth Football Championship.
The leaders also highlighted Azerbaijan's participation in the Consultative Meetings of Central Asian States.
Aliyev thanked Mirziyoyev for his role in facilitating Azerbaijan's full participation in the format, calling it a major strategic development.
“Both of us, naturally, know well the enormous role you personally played in ensuring Azerbaijan’s full participation in this format,” Aliyev said.
Mirziyoyev said Azerbaijan's participation was helping create a closer connection between Central Asia and the South Caucasus, describing the process as the formation of “a unified, self-sufficient macro-region with powerful potential for mutual development.”
Hikmat Hajiyev, Assistant to the President of Azerbaijan said the relationship between Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan had evolved from a strategic partnership to an alliance.
“Azerbaijan-Uzbekistan relations have already reached the level of a strategic alliance. Following the first contacts between the two Presidents, Uzbekistan-Azerbaijan ties have entered a new chapter, a new level,” Hajiyev said in an interview with journalists in Tashkent.
Hajiyev said the two countries' relationship now reflected an “eternal friendship”, describing it as a landmark development in Azerbaijan's diplomatic history.
He also highlighted the historical and cultural ties between the two peoples, saying the new treaty had brought those longstanding bonds into the political sphere.
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