Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan have significant potential to deepen economic cooperation, while closer integration of their logistics networks could enhance the Middle Corridor’s appeal as a transit route. This was stated by Uzbek political scientist and Doctor of Political Sciences Saifiddin Juraev in an interview with Trend. According to the expert, Uzbek-Azerbaijani relations have entered a qualitatively new stage of development, with their potential extending far beyond bilateral trade.
Today, our relations have reached their highest level — that of an alliance — and have taken on an entirely new significance,” Juraev said. He noted that deeper economic ties should be built around industrial cooperation, energy, the automotive industry, agriculture and investment, while transport connectivity has become the key element linking these sectors. The task for the coming years is to significantly expand economic cooperation,” the expert said.
According to him, one of the most promising directions is moving beyond trade in raw materials and finished goods toward the creation of integrated manufacturing value chains. He identified energy and petrochemicals as sectors that could become the backbone of this cooperation. This includes the Neftgaztekhnologiya joint venture, operating since 2016, and Turan Energetika APESCO, created by SOCAR and Uzbekneftegaz in 2024, which exports high-pressure polyethylene to Uzbekistan.
The new trend is shifting from raw-material trade to joint production of polyethylene, polymers and other gas-chemical products,” Juraev said. He emphasized that combining the two countries’ industrial strengths creates the basis for export-oriented production networks. Joint petrochemical value chains provide benefits that simple trade cannot — localized value creation, technology transfer and export opportunities in third markets,” he said.
Juraev also highlighted renewable energy as another area with transformative potential, noting that the Green Corridor being developed by Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan could elevate energy cooperation to a transregional level. It is linked to European demand for decarbonized electricity and the development of subsea cable infrastructure across the Caspian and onward through the Black Sea. It is a capital-intensive, long-term project, but these are precisely the kinds of initiatives capable of attracting significantly larger volumes of external financing and transforming energy cooperation from bilateral into transregional,” he said.
The expert believes the automotive sector offers similar opportunities. The next stage is moving toward component manufacturing and joint exports to third markets, including the Middle East, CIS countries and Iran, using Caspian logistics,” Juraev noted. He added that Uzbekistan brings a large industrial base and UzAuto’s manufacturing expertise, while Azerbaijan can serve both as a market and as a gateway to international markets.
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