Uzbekistan and BRICS: A Mosaic of Interests, Projects, and Prospects

The Valdai Discussion Club's Russian‑Uzbek Conference, held on 30–31 March 2026, clearly demonstrated that Uzbekistan's digital agenda is becoming increasingly integrated into a broader range of international partnerships, including with BRICS countries. Cooperation itself is gradually shifting from general declarations to practical forms of interaction.

After receiving BRICS partner state status on 1 January 2025, Uzbekistan began building cooperation with the New Development Bank (NDB). In June 2025, the President of Uzbekistan and NDB President Dilma Rousseff discussed a $5 billion programme of priority joint projects. These include the modernisation of irrigation systems, mining development, private sector financing, and public‑private partnerships in education and infrastructure. It is through such mechanisms that the foundation for broader technological and infrastructure projects is typically laid. 

Beyond the multilateral partnership track, Uzbekistan is consistently expanding bilateral cooperation with individual BRICS member countries. 

Naturally, China's role is most prominent, given the scale of its economy and its current leadership in artificial intelligence. In June 2025, Tashkent advocated for the creation of a multilateral trade platform—the Electronic Silk Road—as part of the Digital Belt and Road initiative. It also proposed establishing a regional industrial standardisation and certification centre in the capital to align standards and facilitate product entry into the Chinese market. Cooperation is already developing steadily, and Huawei has a significant presence in the country's digital development infrastructure.

Ties with the United Arab Emirates, a key partner for Uzbekistan in AI, are also noticeably strengthening. In 2025, Tashkent announced the launch of the One Million AI Leaders programme in collaboration with the UAE. At the same time, Uzbekistan unveiled 100 AI projects in priority sectors: finance, healthcare, agriculture, and energy. Comprehensive initiatives are being implemented in education, talent development, and applied technology deployment.

The Indian direction is also developing. In 2025, a delegation from Uzbekistan's IT Park participated in the NASSCOM India Technology and Leadership Forum, and business meetings with Indian IT companies on outsourcing and digital services were held in Tashkent. This is not yet a "megaproject" in terms of infrastructure, but it represents a concrete channel of cooperation—anchored in IT exports, Indian business involvement, talent collaboration, and operational presence in Uzbekistan. The Republic was represented at the India AI Impact Summit 2026 in New Delhi, with participants from the Ministry of Economy and Finance confirming Tashkent's interest in a broader international architecture for AI cooperation.

Russia remains a strategic partner for Uzbekistan, including in the digital economy. By 2025–2026, Russian‑Uzbek cooperation in AI had become significantly more focused, though its potential is far from exhausted. Mutual interest today centres on developing applied AI solutions for public administration and the real sector, including bilingual models, as well as working with industry‑specific datasets for healthcare, logistics, and agriculture.

The deepening of cooperation is reflected in the numbers. As of early 2026, accumulated Russian investment in Uzbekistan's IT sector had exceeded $320 million. Forty‑seven Russian technology companies now have a legal presence in the country, and by the end of 2025, two‑way trade in IT services and digital platforms had reached approximately $210 million.

Cooperation in education, human resources, and technological infrastructure also plays an important role. In 2025, internship and partnership programmes were launched with Kazan Federal University and Innopolis University. A roadmap was also approved with the Skolkovo Foundation to help Russian and Uzbek technology companies enter each other's markets. At the same time, projects by Yandex, Sberbank's School 21, and other Russian digital service companies continued to develop.

At this stage, a key priority is the development of an intergovernmental agreement on the promotion and mutual protection of investments in digital projects. Discussions on this began in December 2025. The agreement would also cover support for production chains and access to data, including within the framework of a pilot project on cross‑border data anonymisation between Russia and Uzbekistan, planned for 2026. Whether the parties succeed in building such a coordinated system will determine whether current technological cooperation can move from a collection of isolated initiatives towards a more sustainable and long‑term partnership.

For now, however, we are not witnessing a single large‑scale project. Instead, what is emerging is a mosaic of interconnected tracks that are gradually taking shape as Uzbekistan's digital strategy within the BRICS orbit.