The European Union’s ambassadors still haven’t been convinced to drop their sanctions on Uzbekistan. It seems that they noticed all those arrests of activists and were bothered by the failure to follow through with more meetings over Andijon.
“The [EU] regrets the Uzbek position not to hold a further round of talks…[and] urges the Uzbek side to resume these talks as soon as possible,” the EU draft statement says, adding it will take into account “the actions of the Uzbek government in the area of human rights” in the next review period.
The next review comes in May.
This post was written by...
Nathan Hamm – author of 2040 posts on Registan.net.
Nathan founded Registan.net in 2003. He was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Uzbekistan 2000-2001 and received his MA in Central Asian Studies from the University of Washington in 2007. Since 2007, he has worked full-time as an analyst, consulting with clients on Central Asian affairs, specializing in how socio-cultural factors shape risks and opportunities. Follow him on Twitter or drop him a line.