ВЕСТНИК КазНПУ имени Абая, серия «Исторические и социально-политические науки», №3(58), 2018 г.
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elections, and more." According to the expert, all these facts show that Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan get new
geopolitical and geo-economic levels. Edil Osmonbetov also believes that the architecture of good-neighborly
strategic relations is possible without intermediaries, external players and older brothers.
In addition to border issues, both states are interested in delineating borders for economic and political
reasons. Positive tendencies have emerged in other areas of cooperation: in 2017, the trade turnover increased by
1.8 and amounted to 200 million US dollar. However, the prospects of economic cooperation cause a patchy
response in the expert environment. This is related to the Chinese project to build a railway through Kyrgyzstan to
Uzbekistan, Afghanistan or Turkmenistan then to Iran, which gives the outputs of Chinese goods to the sea ways.
It is the incompleteness of delimitation and demarcation of borders that has so far been a deterrent. As soon as the
two republics sign the final documents, it will be possible to move to the next stage of cooperation.
Thus, the well-known Uzbek political scientist Bakhtiyor Ergashev believes that the project is very beneficial
to Uzbekistan. It will give an opportunity to bring Uzbek goods, raw materials, agricultural products, cars, textiles
and other goods to international markets. The Kyrgyz expert Kubat Rakhimov believes that the conditions offered
by the Chinese side do not meet the interests of his country.
China would like to build a road through Kyrgyzstan, and get the development of mineral deposits, which are
not accidentally appeared along the route developed by the Chinese. The Chinese side claims that Kyrgyzstan will
be able to earn on the transit of the Chinese goods. K. Rakhimov puts such statements in doubt. In his opinion, the
road, the cost of construction of which is estimated at 6-7 billion US dollar will pay off, assuming that it is built
today, and not only by the middle of 2050, and this under favorable conditions. According to the expert, Bishkek's
participation in this project is possible only if the construction is carried out at the expense of the Chinese and their
project partners. In this situation, it is clear that Uzbekistan has goods that can be sold in foreign markets, in
contrast to Kyrgyzstan, which cannot yet offer many goods for export and needs the construction of this road [3].
Another serious interstate problem is energy. It is well known that Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are mountain
countries located in the head waters of rivers. These countries want to build power plants and sell energy. The
countries of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, located in the lower reach of the Syr Darya and Amu Darya, have the
feeling of anxiety and fear that neighbors can take away water and lower it from reservoirs. This problem was on
the agenda during the official meeting of President Sh. Mirziyoyev in Bishkek. In this regard, it should be noted
that before this visit, the meeting of the countries Heads took place in 1991, at the dawn of the parade of
sovereignty. Of course, in a short period of time it is impossible to solve radically and immediately the problem of
water resources in the region, which took place since the independence of the Central Asian republics. At the
same time, the results of the National Survey conducted by the Center for insider information analysis of the
International Institute (IRI) demonstrate the improvement of public opinion in the relations between the two
countries. The number of respondents who consider relations with Uzbekistan good increased by 19 points
compared to the same survey last year, rising to 48 percent from 29 percent in March 2016 [4].
These results coincide with more positive lighting of Kyrgyz-Uzbek relations in the media since Shavkat
Mirziyoyev came into office as President of Uzbekistan in September 2016. Moreover, as some Kyrgyz experts
consider, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan will become the main geopolitical players in Central Asia. In this regard,
they believe that due to the conflict on the Kyrgyz-Kazakh border in autumn 2017, Kazakhstan risks losing its
geopolitical leadership in the region, and on the contrary, Uzbekistan holds this position.
The conflict situation, which broke out on the eve of the election of the President of Kyrgyzstan in the autumn
of 2017, had negative consequences in the relations between Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. The attention of the
expert community is focused on the issues of a comprehensive analysis of the complex of reasons that led to the
deterioration of bilateral relations. Kyrgyzstan also faces important tasks to develop and improve relations not
only with Kazakhstan, but also with Tajikistan. The official visits of the newly elected President of Kyrgyzstan,
Sooronbay Jeenbekov, give great hope for the diversification of interstate relations with other states in the region.
The formation of new regional policy in Central Asia will also be facilitated by the first informal summit of the
states of the region, held in March 2018 in Astana, unfortunately, without the participation of the Turkmen leader
G. Berdimuhamedov, but with the presence of the delegation of this country.
References:
1. B. Musayev. Uzbekistan: regional security and socially dangerous trends in the development of society
//са_с.org/journal/cac-092000/13.musaev. shtml.
2. Kyrgyz-Uzbek relations reduce dramatically conflict potential in the region // www.for.kg/news462505-
ru.html.
3. Kyrgyz-Uzbek relations: initiatives below and above //inozpress.kg/news/view/id/51749.
Абай атындағы ҚазҰПУ-нің ХАБАРШЫСЫ, «Тарих және саяси-әлеуметтік ғылымдар» сериясы, №3(58), 2018 ж.
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4. Survey in Kyrgyzstan: relations with Uzbekistan are improving, corruption remains one of the main
problems
//siar-consult.com/news/opros-v-kyrgystaneotnosheneniya-s-usbekistanom-uluchayutsya-korrupciya-
ostaetsya-odnoi-iz-glavnyx-problem/
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