In her contribution to Working Paper of the European Institute of Romania, Nargiza Umarova offers a comprehensive appraisal of Uzbekistan’s burgeoning role as a pivotal transit hub between Central Asia and the European Union. Drawing upon recent geopolitical shifts — most notably the aftermath of the war in Ukraine and the inaugural EU–Central Asia Summit in Samarkand on 4 April 2025 — she underscores Uzbekistan’s strategic imperative to diversify its export routes and strengthen economic ties with Romania through the Trans-Caspian and Black Sea corridors. By tripling its exports to the EU under the GSP+ regime to US $1.15 billion since 2021, Uzbekistan has demonstrated both the viability of preferential trade frameworks and the urgent need for reliable, multimodal transport links to sustain that momentum.
Umarova delineates three “trigger points” for accelerating interregional connectivity: enhanced trade cooperation, energy export diversification, and critical-minerals logistics. She highlights Tashkent’s proactive engagement in TRACECA and the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route, as well as its 2019 launch of the CASCA+ corridor — an Asia-Pacific to Europe multimodal axis traversing Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Romania and Bulgaria. Her analysis stresses that harmonising these parallel initiatives could substantially expand cargo throughput along the China–Central Asia–Europe axis, notably once the December 2024-opened China–Kyrgyzstan–Uzbekistan railway reaches Turkmenbashi and links to the port of Constanța.
Beyond freight logistics, Umarova envisages a “green energy corridor” threading Caspian and Black Sea seabeds to transmit up to 15 billion kWh of Uzbek solar and wind power to European markets by 2030. She argues that this initiative not only aligns with Romania’s ambition to become a regional energy-distribution hub but also cements a symbiotic Uzbek–Romanian partnership in advancing the EU’s decarbonisation and energy-security objectives. In so doing, her contribution charts a forward-looking agenda whereby transport infrastructure and clean-energy interconnectivity jointly underpin Uzbekistan’s integration into Europe’s economic and environmental architecture.
Nargiza Umarova underpins her recommendations with detailed trade statistics, corridor-development milestones and policy roadmaps, thereby furnishing policymakers with a rigorous blueprint for deepening EU–Central Asia cooperation through the prism of Uzbekistan–Romania linkages.
* The Institute for Advanced International Studies (IAIS) does not take institutional positions on any issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the IAIS.
