The European Union (EU) has lifted sanctions imposed on the Uzbek government in late 2005. European diplomats and senior EU officials pointed at the ineffectiveness of the trade-blocking measures and decided to end the arms embargo last week after the release of key political prisoners and the abolition of the death penalty. The initiative to stop the prolongation of the sanctions was led by Germany. Human rights groups and opposition parties blame the German government for protecting economic ties with the Central Asian regime.
Uzbekistan, a small, but gas-rich post-Soviet country in the heart of Central Asia, has always been a strategic target for Europe`s political and economic ambitions. The country has known considerable evolution in political and economic transformation since attaining independence after the collapse of the Iron Curtain. A “Partnership and Cooperation Agreement” signed in 1996 has been the basis for EU-Uzbek bilateral relations. Later, Uzbekistan under its long-serving leader Islam Karimov became part of the “EU-Central Asia Strategy for a New Partnership”, a strategy document released during the German EU Council presidency in 2007. Its aim is to actively cooperate with the Central Asian states in reaching peace, democracy and economic prosperity as well as to contribute to safeguarding peace and prosperity in neighboring countries. According to data provided by the World Bank and the EU Uzbekistan had a real GDP growth of 9.0 percent in 2008 and a total trade volume of € 1.355 billion with the EU-27-zone in the same year. Trade with Germany has been improving steadily since 2001, now being at the highest level ever since the country’s independence and the establishment of diplomatic relations in the early 1990s (total trade volume in 2008: € 354 million).
EU sanctions banning military sales and putting regime officials on a visa blacklist were imposed in protest at the Andijan massacres, when Uzbek security forces killed hundreds of people by opening fire on unarmed demonstrators. Hence, Karimov’s regime punished Western countries by expelling international NGOs and closing down US military facilities being used for Afghanistan. Only German Armed Forces remained in Uzbekistan and were authorized to use the Termes military base. During an official visit in Uzbekistan in 2006 former foreign minister Frank Walter Steinmeier (Social Democratic Party) promised Tashkent (the capital) to engage for a lifting of EU sanctions among counterparts. As a symbol of good will the Uzbek police chief, involved in the violent riots in 2005, was allowed into Germany for medical treatment.
At a meeting of EU foreign ministers in mid-2007 the German chief diplomat and vice-chancellor pushed for a relaxation of sanctions, believing that the embargo was not working productively and contending that engagement with the Uzbek government is likely to be more fruitful. At another foreign ministers summit in Luxemburg in 2008 Uzbekistan-friendly Germany led a new push to drop sanctions, which then, pointing at positive developments in the fields of human rights and political progress, were suspended for six months. Saying that the EU must respect Uzbekistan’s interests if it wants closer ties, Germany scraped the visa ban in order to give key officials and businessmen free travel authorization.
The German initiative was criticized by human rights groups and the opposition Green Party which want to ensure more progress before relaxing sanctions. The party’s parliamentary group in the German Bundestag wrote a letter to Chancellor Angela Merkel (Christian Democratic Union) and called on her to decide for the protection of human rights and not for trade interests. Uzbekistan is a most remarkable hub in the region where European, Russian und US energy interests clash. A vast majority of Uzbekistan’s pipelines are still under Russian control. Germany is keen to protect its own commercial interests there. This also includes the use of Termes base to supply its troops stationed in war-shaken and bloody Afghanistan. Germany’s export-dependent economy forces its government to balance in a triangle of democracy promotion, economic-opportunity-hunting and electorate-satisfaction. But since the impacts of the global economic meltdown became visible on German markets as well, it is not hard to determine where the main focus rests: signing business deals and ensuring gas supply for the cold winter days.
