Russia to build nuclear power plant in Uzbekistan

President Shavkat Mirziyoyev says Uzbekistan also interested in buying more oil and gas from Russia.

Russia will build a small nuclear power plant in Uzbekistan, the first such project in post-Soviet Central Asia, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has said as he met visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Putin said on Monday that Russia would put $400m into a joint investment fund of $500m 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,” Mirziyoyev said.

Putin described Tashkent as a “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.

The agreement, 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.

There are no nuclear power plants in any of the five ex-Soviet Central Asian republics, although Uzbekistan and its neighbour Kazakhstan, both uranium producers, have long said their growing economies needed them.

The Kazakh project, however, can only move ahead after a national referendum that has not yet been scheduled.

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