EU woos energy-rich Uzbekistan

摘要

The European Commission (EC) has steadily wooed the Caspian nations first Kazakhstan, then Turkmenistan, have been given audiences, trade agreements and social programme funding in return for opening channels for talks on energy. However, both countries have spotty human-rights records (especially Turkmenistan) and it would appear the European Union (EU) is prepared to hold its nose once again to engage an energy-rich central Asian country with a track record for oppression Uzbekistan. The Uzbek President Islam Karimov (its only post-independence leader) visited Brussels in 2011 to talk gas and oil with EC President Jose Manuel Barroso and EU Energy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger. The visit was reciprocated in November 2012, when EU Foreign Affairs High Representative Catherine Ashton visited the Uzbek capital Tashkent.