Is Germany Going Soft on Uzbekistan?

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A COMMON LANGUAGE. If the Afghanistan mission provides the geo-strategic rationale behind Germany's stance on the sanctions, commercial interests also factor in the equation.

Germany is Uzbekistan's fourth most important supplier of goods, after Russia, China, and South Korea, according to the German embassy in Tashkent. Between January and August, Uzbekistan imported goods from Germany worth 165 million euros, a nearly 12-percent increase over the same period last year.

Some 55 German companies operate in Uzbekistan, including the industrial giant Siemens and three German banks, which finance both the trade in cotton and German export transactions with Uzbekistan.

Germany is also seeking secure energy supplies. Some of the large amount of natural gas it buys from Russia originates in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan; if Uzbekistan raises the price or does not supply the necessary volume, Germany could suffer.

The German interest in Uzbekistan, and the reaction it has prompted there, is also visible in less obvious areas.

After Tashkent's moves to squeeze out the U.S. airbase in the country, the U.S. mining giant Newmont Mining, and many English-language non-governmental groups and media, English is growing less and less popular in the country. Instead, many Uzbeks are now learning German. According to the German Foreign Ministry, Uzbekistan now ranks fifth in absolute numbers of German learners worldwide.

Tatyana Nekrasova, principal of Tashkent School No. 60, tells TOL that her school is popular because it offers courses leading to a language diploma recognized in Germany. "An especially massive influx began several years ago," she says, "and now about 2,200 children study here despite the fact that the school was planned for 1,000 children."