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- Turkish, Uzbek leaders meet alongside Organization of Turkic States summit to sign new agreements to expand trade, investment and defense cooperation, as well as preferential trade agreement to pursue medium-term bilateral trade volume target of $10B
By Mert Davut and Emir Yildirim
ANKARA / ISTANBUL (AA) - Türkiye and Uzbekistan signed new trade deals to expand bilateral cooperation across sectors and target an annual trade volume of $5 billion in the short term.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Uzbek counterpart, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, held a meeting in Ankara alongside the 13th summit of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS).
The two leaders focused on trade, investment, mining, transportation and the defense industry.
This dialogue builds on Mirziyoyev’s visit to Türkiye in January for the High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council, when deals were signed on health, energy, finance and culture.
The two leaders signed five additional deals on trade, social security and business support during their latest meeting in Ankara, including a protocol expanding the scope of the preferential trade agreement between the two countries.
The leaders also established the Türkiye-Uzbekistan Business and Investment Council to generate momentum for joint commercial projects and strengthen ties between public institutions and the private sectors.
These new frameworks are expected to expand bilateral trade volume from nearly $3.1 billion last year to a medium-term goal of $10 billion.
Türkiye is Uzbekistan’s fourth-largest trading partner, having recorded $2.4 billion in bilateral trade volume in January-September, with $1.5 billion in exports and $917.4 million in imports.
Türkiye ran a trade surplus of $1 billion with Uzbekistan in 2024 and 2025 amid rising exports over the past five years.
Turkish exports to Uzbekistan rose from $1.84 billion in 2021 to $1.877 billion in 2022, dipped slightly to $1.872 billion in 2023, peaked at $2.2 billion in 2024 and settled at $2.1 billion last year.
Turkish exports were dominated by machinery and mechanical devices at $572 million, followed by electrical machinery and equipment at $194 million and plastics at $123 million.
Türkiye’s imports from Uzbekistan fell from $1.8 billion in 2021 to $1.6 billion in 2022, $1.2 billion in 2023, $1.1 billion in 2024 and $1.03 billion last year.
Uzbek imports to Türkiye were heavily concentrated in copper and copper goods at $414 million.
Meanwhile, the Turkish construction sector has undertaken 333 projects in Uzbekistan to date, with a total value of over $9.5 billion, ranking 10th in the country with $1.1 billion in 2024 and rising to sixth place with $940 million in 2025.
The deepening economic relations between the two countries were also reflected in soaring tourism figures, as the number of Uzbek visitors to Türkiye rose from an average of 146,000 in 2010-2020 to 272,604 in 2021, 419,673 in 2022, 470,644 in 2023, 569,818 in 2024 and 649,719 last year, marking a 138.3% surge over five years.
