Germany and Uzbekistan have maintained diplomatic relations since 1992. Germany has an embassy in Tashkent. There are regular consultations on political, economic and cultural cooperation. In September 2024, Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz travelled to Uzbekistan, where, among other things, he had bilateral talks with President Shavkat Mirziyoyev. During the visit, Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser and her Uzbek colleague signed a bilateral migration and mobility partnership agreement.

As the second-largest economy in Central Asia, Uzbekistan is a valued economic partner. Germany is Uzbekistan’s most important trading partner in the EU. In 2023, bilateral trade reached 1.1 billion euro (of which approx. 1.0 billion was accounted for by German exports). A total of around 220 companies with German holdings are active in Uzbekistan.

A cultural agreement has been in place between Germany and Uzbekistan since 2002.

The Goethe-Institut, the Central Agency for Schools Abroad (ZfA) and the Educational Exchange Service (Pädagogischer Austauschdienst, PAD) are active in Uzbekistan as actors in Germany’s cultural relations and social policy. The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) looks after Uzbekistan from its Regional Office in Kyrgyzstan. The German Archaeological Institute (DAI) is conducting several excavations.

Some 400,000 people in Uzbekistan are learning German – the highest number across Asia. Nineteen Uzbek schools are part of Germany’s global network Schools: Partners for the Future (PASCH). In addition, there are four DAAD lectors and two language assistants working in the country.

There are 74 higher education cooperation projects between Germany and Uzbekistan. Since 2022, for example, there has been cooperation between the Technical University of Munich and the New Uzbekistan University, which opened in 2021. In September 2024, the Merseburg University of Applied Sciences preparatory course in cooperation with Tashkent State Pedagogical University opened a faculty for German as a foreign and specialised language.

Several projects were carried out in 2024 within the framework of the strategic regional partnership between Germany and Central Asia, including a civil-society conference and a series of films and concerts in Berlin.

Germany supports Uzbekistan through bilateral development cooperation. The German Government has been supporting regional political dialogue on climate and security with the project Green Central Asia since 2020 and the project Energy-Water-Land-Use Nexus in Central Asia since 2022 to operationalise cooperation among all Central Asian states at the interface between energy, water and land issues. This is complemented by projects at both bilateral and regional (Central Asia) level in the fields of economic development (including cross-border trade, vocational training, sustainable economic development) and environment, climate and energy (particularly water management and renewable energies).