Russia's Gazprom signs cooperation roadmap with Uzbekistan

By Burc Eruygur

ISTANBUL (AA) – Russian energy giant Gazprom on Tuesday announced it has agreed a roadmap for cooperation with Uzbekistan.

The agreement was signed in a meeting between Gazprom head Alexey Miller and Uzbekistan’s Energy Minister Jorabek Mirzamahmudov, according to a company statement.

It includes a “roadmap for cooperation in the gas industry” and was finalized after discussions on “current and future issues,” the statement said.

In a meeting in Moscow last November, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Kazakh counterpart Kassym-Jomart Tokayev discussed a proposal for the possible creation of a “trilateral gas union” with Uzbekistan.

Mirzamahmudov apparently opposed the idea at the time, saying that Uzbekistan was only interested in “negotiating the import of natural gas and electricity from neighboring countries, and not through an alliance or union.”

He also asserted that Uzbekistan would never agree to political conditions in exchange for gas.

Any agreement for gas imports will only be “through commercial sales contracts” and Uzbekistan “will not allow any political conditions to be imposed in return,” he said.