Rapidly growing interaction between Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan demonstrates that political rapprochement in the Caspian region transforms into economic integration. Formation of diplomatic, cultural and transport contacts, in recent years, has been complemented by such tools as investments, industry cooperation and business contacts, writes Yunis Gurbanov.
Importance of this process is not limited to the bilateral sphere alone – in November 2025, Azerbaijan became part of the Consultative Meeting of the Heads of States of Central Asia and expanded the traditional model of C5 group into a new C6 structure. But at the same time, it becomes necessary to find out if political processes will acquire economic continuity. Recent cooperation of Baku and Tashkent gives some initial answers to this question.
The rate of economic involvement is picking up. According to the Ministry of Investment, Industry and Trade of Uzbekistan, the trade between the two countries was worth $307.3 million in 2025, a growth rate of 14.6%. Turnover in January-June 2026 was $170.3 million, which was an increase of 30.8% from the previous year.
Trade relationships do not make up the whole picture. The Azerbaijan-Uzbekistan Investment Company was established using sovereign capital of $500 million, which means that the relationship received a tool to finance joint ventures. Moreover, Uzbekistan claimed that there are more than 240 firms that have been established with capital from Azerbaijan in the country, and now industrial cooperation between the two countries has moved beyond automobile, textile, sericulture, construction material and jewellery industries.
In addition to that, the institution itself became more sophisticated. In 2026, the 15th meeting of the Azerbaijan-Uzbekistan Joint Intergovernmental Commission took place. It addressed not only trade development but also the establishment of production and value chain linking Central Asia with South Caucasus. At the end of the meeting, AzerGold, Uzbekgeologorazvedka and the Azerbaijan-Uzbekistan Investment Company reached an agreement on establishing a joint venture company for geological exploration.
It is important because it suggests a transition from exchange alone to cooperation in terms of developing and producing resources. While connectivity projects such as the Middle Corridor have usually been looked at in terms of faster movement of goods between China, Central Asia, and Europe, the innovative case of Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan suggests that the next step will be economic activity within the corridor.
It became even clearer when President Ilham Aliyev visited Uzbekistan in August 2026. More specifically, on August 23, both presidents participated in the inauguration and laying of the cornerstone for a number of Azerbaijani projects. It includes the opening of Davr Bank, a gypsum plant, and two STEAM schools, as well as the laying of the cornerstone for five SOCAR filling stations, Sea Breeze Uzbekistan and Baku City residential complexes, a silver ore processing and concentration plant, and agricultural orchards.
It does not matter which project, what is important is the diversity of the projects. Projects involving banking, construction materials, energy transmission, education, mining, urbanization, and agriculture have been added to the list of Azerbaijani-Uzbek projects. The diversity of Azerbaijani-Uzbek economic cooperation is reflected in the diversification of transport projects and political dialogue between these countries.
Private businesses' engagement goes hand in hand with the governmental ones. 400 companies participated in the 4th Interregional Forum of Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan, which took place in Tashkent on 22 August. These companies work in fields such as heavy industry, machinery, metallurgy, construction, textile industry, agriculture, processing industry, tourism, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, mining, chemical industry, electrotechnical and automotive industry.
These figures take on special meaning when one takes into consideration the nascent concept of C6. Azerbaijan’s involvement in the Central Asian context goes beyond diplomacy. Azerbaijan represents an institutional linkage from the Caspian Sea across to the South Caucasus, Türkiye, and Europe. Uzbekistan, meanwhile, endows Central Asia with its demographic weight, industrial strength, geographical centrality, and increasing tendency to invest abroad.
The regional context lends further momentum to this process. The European Union expects that the volume of trade via the Trans-Caspian Corridor will increase four-fold since 2022 and may increase three-fold by 2030 through proper investments. In June 2026, the European Commission initiated the Connectivity Agenda Platform, designed to increase the linkages between Central Asia and the South Caucasus, the Black Sea region, and Europe. The EU at the same time signed agreements with international financial institutions, which should generate up to €2 billion in investment in strategic connectivity projects.
After one month, the European Commission introduced a South Caucasus connectivity package, which includes the provision of up to 200 million euros in grants, and has the capacity to leverage up to 2 billion euros in public and private finance. The connectivity package involves the sectors of transport, energy and digital, and specifically names Azerbaijan as one of the key nodes that connect Europe, the Caspian and Central Asia.
Therefore, for Europe, the opportunities are greater than only a faster railway connection to Central Asia. In case the C6 concept facilitates greater integration in mining, processing, manufacturing, energy, logistics and digital infrastructure, then it may provide more commercially attractive projects in the region. It will help Europe to gain better access to the markets and resources of Central Asia and help diversify the Eurasian supply chains.
There are still a lot of obstacles. Bilateral trade between Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan is rather limited in quantitative terms. The transportation costs through the Caspian Sea are quite high, the regulatory systems are not yet fully harmonized, and many of the projects proposed will still have to demonstrate commercial viability.
And yet, this is exactly why the Azerbaijan-Uzbekistan dynamic requires attention. This is because it provides one of the most tangible cases of whether the new geopolitics surrounding C6 can provide any concrete economic content.
The nascent architecture already relies on a number of tangible elements: a target of $1 billion in bilateral trade, $500 million of joint investments, nearly 400 companies participating in the last inter-regional forum, industrial and mining projects, and the more general Trans-Caspian context, which sees billions of euros of European investment in connectivity.
As this architecture develops further, the importance of C6 may eventually turn out to be not so much about creating yet another regional organization, as about facilitating a new model of economic integration. In this scenario, Central Asia would cease to be limited by the eastern shores of the Caspian. Azerbaijan would become a growing part of the larger economic space, bringing together Central Asia and the South Caucasus, Turkey and Europe.
The Azerbaijan-Uzbekistan cooperation is still in the nascent but growing architecture. As such it does, however, provide a clear signpost for how it could develop.
