‘We won’t agree to political conditions in exchange for gas.’ Uzbekistan rejects Putin’s idea to create ‘trilateral gas union’

Uzbekistan has refused to join the Kremlin’s initiative to establish a “trilateral gas union”, Reuters reports. Energy Minister Jorabek Mirzamahmudov said that Tashkent will “never agree to political conditions in exchange for gas.”

“When importing gas from other countries, we only cooperate with them on the basis of commercial contracts. We will never agree to political conditions in exchange for gas,” he said.

At the same time, the official noted that a gas agreement can be inked with Russia, but “an agreement does not mean a union”. According to Mirzamahmudov, Moscow and Tashkent were in talks about Russian gas supplies via Kazakhstan, but it would represent “a technical contract”.

Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev first mentioned the initiative to establish such a union on 28 November at a meeting with Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin. According to him, Russian President Vladimir Putin was behind the initiative. Tokayev then underlined that there were “questions which require additional agreements and even talks”.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that Putin had proposed establishing this “coordination mechanism” to develop the infrastructure for consumption and transportation of gas for internal and external markets. According to Peskov, “a legal entity” might be required to achieve that.