NATO holds training exercise in Uzbekistan

NATO concludes its military training session in Uzbekistan today.

NATO military personnel arrived earlier this week to hold training sessions for Uzbek army cadets in the nation’s military training centres. Training was given on a number of subjects, including how non-commissioned officers are trained in NATO member states.

Despite sharing close ties with Russia, Uzbekistan remains part of NATO’s Partnership for Peace Programme, an initiative it joined in 1994. Part of this program includes regular NATO training sessions for non-member states to foster trust and cooperation between NATO and other non-allied states. In addition to military training exercises, Uzbekistan also cooperates with NATO on a broad range of areas including civil preparedness, the development of armed forces and countering current security threats.

Despite this close cooperation, Tashkent still enjoys close relations with Moscow as the latter remains crucial to its natural gas needs. While Moscow has previously criticized increased western involvement within the country, it is highly likely that Uzbekistan will continue to preserve its neutral and maximally pragmatic approach of balancing relations with both the West and Russia.

What security threats specifically? Terrorism or something else?