Russia will build a small nuclear power plant in Uzbekistan, the first such project in post-Soviet Central Asia, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev said on Monday at a meeting with visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The nuclear deal, if implemented, will showcase Russia’s ability to export not only energy, but also high-tech products to new Asian markets, at a time when the West is increasing pressure on it through sanctions.
Putin said Russia would put $400 million into a joint investment fund of $500 million to finance projects in Uzbekistan.
Mirziyoyev also said Tashkent was interested in buying more oil and gas from Russia, a reversal of decades-long practice where Moscow imported hydrocarbons from Central Asia.
The Uzbek president described Putin’s visit as “historic”.
“It heralds the beginning of a new age in the comprehensive strategic partnership and alliance relations between our countries,” he said.
Putin also called Tashkent Moscow’s “strategic partner and reliable ally”.
According to documents published by the Kremlin, Russian state nuclear firm Rosatom will build up to six nuclear reactors with a capacity of 55 megawatts each in Uzbekistan, a much smaller-scale project than the 2.4 gigawatts one agreed in 2018 which remains to be finalised.
There are no nuclear power plants in any of the five ex-Soviet Central Asian republics, although Uzbekistan and its neighbor Kazakhstan, both uranium producers, have long said their growing economies needed them.
The Kazakh project, however, can only move ahead after a national referendum which has not yet been scheduled.
“Nearly all the leading countries of the world ensure their energy security and sustainable development with the help of nuclear energy,” Mirziyoyev said.
