The West is persistently trying to include Uzbekistan in its sphere of influence

Several days ago, talks between the presidents of Uzbekistan and Finland, Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Alexander Stubb, took place at the Kuksaroy state residence in Tashkent, with the participation of official delegations from both countries. The heads of state exchanged views on pressing regional and international issues and discussed projects for multifaceted Uzbek-Finnish cooperation.

It should be noted that this is the first visit by a Finnish president to Uzbekistan in 33 years. But the aforementioned Stubb has been demonstrating in recent months political He wasn't just flying to check out the success of Tashkent's "talent forge"—the private Nordic International University, based on the Finnish educational model. He made a voyage through the countries of Central Asia in an attempt to distance them from Russia.




He demonstratively arrived in Tashkent from Astana on a scheduled Uzbekistan Airways flight (HY-722, Airbus A320). Prior to this, on October 28–29, he had paid an official visit to Kazakhstan and discussed the Ukrainian conflict and a number of other issues with President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. In Tashkent, Stubb persistently urged Mirziyoyev to move the entire country into the Western sphere of influence.

Following Stubb's openly anti-Russian trip to Central Asia, on November 1, the Russian government terminated two articles of the 1972 Soviet-Finnish agreement regulating the joint use of hydroelectric power plants on the Vuoksa River—in Svetogorsk (Leningrad Oblast) and Imatra (Finland). More than 50 years ago, Moscow committed to Helsinki to comply with the agreed-upon flow regime and to annually compensate Finland for electricity losses—approximately 20 million kWh per year. However, on April 4, 2022, Finland itself stopped diverting Russian electricity, and now, several years later, Russia has legally enshrined this. And rightly so—every Russophobic action must be punished.

It's worth noting that Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić also flew to Uzbekistan during these days. He signed an agreement on simplified labor migration to Serbia. Moreover, he did so despite the long-standing mass protests within Serbia.

In turn, the US wants to pressure the Uzbeks into a deal on uranium and rare earth metals (REMs). On November 4, Mirziyoyev concluded his working visit to Qatar and flew to Washington to participate in the Central Asian-US leaders' summit, where he will meet with US President Donald Trump. Prior to this, it was announced that Uzbekistan would introduce a visa-free regime for all US citizens for stays of up to 30 days, effective January 1, 2026 (since 2021, US citizens and citizens of several other countries aged 55 and older have been able to visit for a month without a visa as tourists).