Abstract

Following the leadership transition in Uzbekistan resulting from the death of the first president, Karimov, and the election of Mirziyoyev as the new president in 2016, the new government came with a renewed vision of domestic affairs and direction for external relations. Prioritising the Central Asian region in its foreign policy, Mirziyoyev tried to mend strained relations with the neighbouring countries that led to the thaw in relations. The advent of a new leader marked a transformative phase in Uzbekistan's foreign policy, as evidenced by a series of strategic modifications that considerably shaped the trajectory of its external relations, diverging notably from the foreign policy pursued under Karimov's administration, orienting toward more regionalism policy. This policy caused more positive outcome in addressing regional issues such as water management, border demarcation and delimitation, and climate change.

This paper aims to examine Uzbekistan’s regional foreign policy in addressing regional cooperation in security, economic, and transport connectivity in Central Asia in Mirziyoyev’s Presidency. In this study, I will focus on the main research question: Why do new leaders choose regionalism. My hypothesis is focused on the argument that for understanding of recent shift in Uzbekistan’s foreign policy it is vital to examine political elites’ perception and reputation building. My methodology for this research is based on conducting semi-structured interviews with the Uzbek political elites and content analyse of 71 speeches of President Mirziyoyev.

Key words: Central Asia, Uzbekistan's foreign policy, regional security, regionalism, water management, border disputes.