BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 21. 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. “Since the second half of 2016, following Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s election as President of Uzbekistan, bilateral cooperation has undergone a genuine breakthrough. 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. “Trade turnover between the two countries more than tripled in 2025, reaching $795 million. 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. “A solid institutional foundation has already been established. 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. “Uzbekistan has growing domestic demand and major gas-chemical facilities, including Shurtan, MTO and GTL projects, while Azerbaijan offers SOCAR’s resource base and access to European markets. 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. “The Green Corridor project, aimed at exporting renewable electricity across the Caspian Sea, goes far beyond the bilateral agenda. 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. “Chevrolet and Isuzu bus production currently relies largely on semi-knocked-down assembly. 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.
In agriculture, he said cooperation could expand into food processing, cold-chain logistics, seed production, crop breeding and water-saving technologies. “Both countries are agricultural economies facing similar challenges related to arid farming and water scarcity. In this area, cooperation is complementary rather than competitive,” he said.
According to Juraev, scaling up all of these initiatives ultimately depends on stronger transport infrastructure, particularly the Middle Corridor. “The Middle Corridor’s challenge is not geography but fragmentation: multiple border crossings, Caspian transshipment, different tariff systems, customs procedures and disconnected digital documentation. Transit volumes of 1.4 million tons in 2025, followed by 12.2% growth in the first half of 2026, reflect an upward trend but remain modest by global standards. Turning geography into real transport capacity requires both bilateral and multilateral coordination,” he said.
He argued that the defining concept for the corridor’s next phase should be “synchronization” — aligning tariffs, train schedules, customs procedures and digital documentation along the entire route. “We need through tariffs, one-stop-shop customs mechanisms, coordinated schedules and full digitalization of the corridor. Integrating the logistics systems of Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan systematically enhances the corridor’s attractiveness by making it more predictable in terms of transit times and costs, while giving Central Asian countries more efficient access to global markets,” Juraev said.
He also noted that the Middle Corridor’s growing importance reflects not only its geographic advantages but also the broader diversification of Eurasian logistics. “The rise of the Middle Corridor after 2022 has largely been driven by efforts to reduce dependence on a single Eurasian transport route. Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan are capitalizing on this shift. But the corridor’s long-term resilience will depend not on external circumstances, but on whether it becomes competitive in cost, speed and reliability,” he said.
Juraev identified the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway as another project capable of reshaping Central Asia’s transport landscape. “Integrating the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway with the Middle Corridor turns Uzbekistan into a potential consolidation hub. Cargo from China will be able to reach Europe via a shorter southern route through the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijan and other parts of the corridor. For Uzbekistan, which is doubly landlocked, this is strategically significant: Azerbaijan becomes its indispensable western gateway,” he said.
He added that the route through Nakhchivan and Türkiye under the TRIPP framework and the Zangezur direction could become another important component of this system. “Reopening transport links through Nakhchivan to Türkiye would reduce the corridor’s dependence on the single Georgian route and create an alternative overland connection to Europe. Together with the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway, this could fundamentally reshape the Middle Corridor and strengthen its resilience,” the expert said.
According to Juraev, the development of the corridor is simultaneously laying the groundwork for broader economic integration within the Organization of Turkic States (OTS). “The Middle Corridor is the physical backbone of OTS economic integration, while the Green Corridor represents its energy dimension. Together, the Azerbaijani-Uzbek tandem gives Turkic integration practical substance through transport, energy, trade facilitation and, ultimately, harmonized customs regimes,” he said.
He also pointed to Azerbaijan’s participation in the Consultative Meetings of Central Asian heads of state as another factor creating new opportunities for linking the economies of the two regions. “In effect, a more connected space is emerging — stretching from western China to Anatolia. In this context, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan can become architects of a new regional framework where transport and energy projects are reinforced by investment and industrial cooperation,” Juraev said.
He added that expanding investment cooperation could further accelerate this process. “The Azerbaijan-Uzbekistan Investment Company, with capital of $500 million, together with the arrival of major investment players, creates a mechanism that reduces risks for private capital. More than 130 companies with Uzbek investment operating in Azerbaijan demonstrate that two-way business engagement is already underway. The next step is to launch large-scale anchor projects capable of connecting investment, manufacturing and logistics,” he said.
In his view, this combination could transform the Middle Corridor into far more than a transport route. “If transport infrastructure moves goods, industrial cooperation and investment ensure that those goods are produced and that value is created. Integrating the Middle Corridor with industrial, energy and investment projects can therefore create not just a transport route, but a fully fledged economic ecosystem linking Central Asia, the Caspian region, the South Caucasus, Türkiye and European markets,” the expert concluded.
