Ukraine–Uzbekistan relations

Diplomatic relations between Ukraine and Uzbekistan were established on 25 August 1992.

Ukraine–Uzbekistan relations
Map indicating locations of Ukraine and Uzbekistan

Ukraine
Uzbekistan
Islam Karimov and Leonid Kuchma in 2001.
Embassy of Uzbekistan in Kyiv

History

The Ukrainian Embassy in Tashkent was opened in 1993 while the Uzbek Embassy was opened in Kyiv in 1995.

Since the establishment of relations between the two countries, 8 top-level visits have been made:

Guest Host Place of visit Date of visit
Ukraine President Leonid Kuchma Uzbekistan President Islam Karimov Tashkent June 1995
Ukraine President Leonid Kuchma Uzbekistan President Islam Karimov Tashkent October 2000[1]
Ukraine President Leonid Kuchma Uzbekistan President Islam Karimov Tashkent December 2002
Ukraine President Leonid Kuchma Uzbekistan President Islam Karimov Tashkent April 2003
Uzbekistan President Islam Karimov Ukraine President Leonid Kuchma Kyiv August 1992
Uzbekistan President Islam Karimov Ukraine President Leonid Kuchma Kyiv November 1994
Uzbekistan President Islam Karimov Ukraine President Leonid Kuchma Kyiv February 1998
Uzbekistan President Islam Karimov Ukraine President Leonid Kuchma Kyiv October 1999

Economic relations

Uzbekistan supplies Ukraine with cotton fiber, textiles, petroleum products, and non-ferrous metals. There are currently 48 enterprises operating in Uzbekistan and 34 Uzbek companies in Ukraine. In 2018, Uzbekistan became the largest import country for Ukrainian sugar, which accounted for 60% of all Ukrainian sugar exports. In early October of that year, deliveries became complicated due to an investigation by the Verkhovna Rada into a supposed unfair advantage being given to Uzbek carmakers by providing them with various forms of support. The Oliy Majlis retaliated by imposing sanctions and import bans on Ukrainian sugar and pharmaceuticals.[2] The crisis ended in December when the Joint Ukrainian-Uzbek Commission convened to discuss cooperating on economic issues in the interests of both countries.[3]

Cultural relations

The first version of the monument to Taras Shevchenko monument was installed in Tashkent on 21 November 1920.[4] In October 2000, during the official state visit of Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma to Uzbekistan, he and the President Islam Karimov laid a memorial stone at the site of the installation of the future monument to Shevchenko.[5] Two years later, on 20 December 2002, Kuchma unveiled the monument to Shevchenko made by sculptor Leonid Ryabtsev.[6][7] It was announced in 2016 that there was plans to open an Alisher Navoi Monument in Kyiv.[8]

Ukrainian diaspora

There are currently 86,000 Ukrainians or people of Ukrainian descent living in Uzbekistan. They mostly live in large urban cities such as Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara and Fergana as well as speak the Uzbek language or the Surzhyk sociolect. Crimean Tatar is also widely spoken by this community. Most belong to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

According to Ukrainian and Russian archives, the first Ukrainians arrived in Central Asia in the mid-18th century. The first mass settlement of Ukrainians in Turkestan began in 1885 and by 1897, the first permanent settlements appeared in the Samarkand Region, with Ukrainian language schools and other Ukrainian traditions being observed.[9] During the Great Patriotic War, thousands of Ukrainians in the Ukrainian SSR were evacuated to Soviet Uzbekistan. In the aftermath of the 1966 Tashkent earthquake, over 2,500 Ukrainian engineers participated in the restoration of Tashkent. In January 2014, leaders in the Ukrainian diaspora spoke out to condemn an unauthorized rally in support of Euromaidan near the monument to Shevchenko, in which participants waved flags of Ukraine, Georgia and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army.[10]

Notable people
Leonid Velichko in January 2014.

See also

References
  1. "Узбекистан встречает стратегического союзника". 13 October 2000.
  2. "Uzbekistan, Ukraine exchange import-ban threats amid trade row | Eurasianet".
  3. "Ukraine, Uzbekistan to resume work of joint commission for comprehensive cooperation".
  4. Народы Узбекистана: Украинцы
  5. Коммерсант о визите Леонида Кучмы в Узбекистан
  6. Выпуск газета Сегодня №291 (1339) за 23.12.2002
  7. "Тарас Шевченко ҳайкали" (in Uzbek). Retrieved 2022-11-05.
  8. В Киеве может появиться сквер Алишера Навои
  9. "Украинцы в Узбекистане - Посольство Украины в Республике Узбекистан" (in Russian). uzbekistan.mfa.gov.ua. Retrieved 2019-06-12.
  10. За тысячи километров от Киева
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