Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Russia have made progress in discussing a tripartite gas union project, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in Samarkand in Samarkand today after the CIS foreign ministers meeting in the Central Asia-Russia format.
Three countries - Russia, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, including at the level of presidents, have advanced in the discussion of this large-scale project, which will definitely make it possible to enhance the energy security, he said.
“The benefits will be for everyone, since there are gas suppliers, there are those who are interested in this gas. When the parties agree on both the terms of transit and the terms of the price, if everyone is satisfied with everything, then everyone wins,” he added.
At the end of November 2022, it became known that Russia proposed to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan to create a “tripartite gas union”. The Russian side then stated that this proposal does not imply the supply of gas in exchange for political conditions, but it is about the coordination of commercial interests.
Energy Minister Zhurabek Mirzamakhmudov in December, amid the energy crisis that began in Uzbekistan with the onset of cold weather, said that Uzbekistan was negotiating to import gas from its neighbors thorugh a commercial contract, and not through "some kind of alliance or union."
In January, the Ministries of Energy of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan signed a roadmap for cooperation in the gas industry with Russia's Gazprom.
