Presidency of Shavkat Mirziyoyev

Mirziyoyev worked hard to remove any controversial trace of the Karimov administration in his presidency. This also worked strategically, as some of Mirziyoyev's political adversaries such as Rustam Azimov and Rustam Inoyatov were opposed to many of his planned reforms. This period in his presidency was used to consolidate his power and remove all power struggles in the country.[4] He appointed Abdusalom Azizov to head the defense ministry in September 2017, to succeed the long-time defense minister Qobul Berdiyev, who was seen as a Karimov loyalist. Azizov himself would be sacked from this position in February 2019, being transferred to the National Security Service to lead it after its head, Lieutenant General Ikhtiyor Abdullayev, was accused of tapping President Mirziyoyev's phone.[5]

There are many visible results of Mirziyoyev's reforms, which included the creation of more than 300,000 jobs and an increase in exports. Mirziyoyev secured 10 billion dollars in areas such as infrastructure, alternative energy and agriculture following talks with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed in March 2019.[6][7] In October 2020, he approved a list of state-owned properties and enterprises that are to be sold to the Uzbek private sector as a means of speeding up the privatization process in Uzbekistan.[8]

Mirziyoyev was responsible for handling of the COVID-19 pandemic in Uzbekistan in 2020. He has been noted for being responsible for trying to coordinate efforts within Central Asia to combat the crisis.[9][10] He launched the "Safe Travel Guaranteed" campaign as a way to reinvigorate the tourism sector, which included a compensation package for those infected with the virus while on holiday.[11] In July, he reprimanded health minister Alisher Shodmonov and Mayor of Tashkent Jahongir Artikhojayev for failing to stop the spread of the virus.[12] In August, he awarded honorary titles and medals to workers in healthcare and science who were on the frontlines of the pandemic.[13] Earlier that month, he has instructed the government to ease lockdown measures step by step.[14]

On 5 September 2017, Mirziyoyev conducted a state visit to Kyrgyzstan, the first visit of its kind since 2000.[19] A similar historic first visit was made in March 2018 to Dushanbe, Tajikistan.[20] These were part of a bigger effort to improve relations with these two countries, which were riddled with tension primarily due to border disputes with those countries. In January 2017, regular commercial flights between Tashkent and Dushanbe resumed for the first time in 25 years.[21]

From left to right: Ziroatkhon Hoshimova, President Mirziyoyev, Ram Nath Kovind, Savita Kovind and Narendra Modi.

Mirziyoyev has made sure that Uzbekistan plays an important role in the peace talks between the Government of Afghanistan and the Taliban. In June of that year, the Uzbek foreign ministry, established diplomatic contacts with the terrorist organization.[22] In August 2018, Mirziyoyev requested successfully that a Taliban delegation visit Tashkent to discuss Uzbekistan's role in the guaranteeing of peace in Afghanistan.[23] In an address to his counterparts at a Commonwealth of Independent States summit in Dushanbe, Mirziyoyev extensively spoke of the instability in Afghanistan and the need to stop equipped and financed terrorist cells from leaving Syria and Iraq to go fight in Central Asia.[24] In April 2019, he met with Zalmay Khalilzad, United States Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation to discussed various avenues to take in order to stabilize the reconstruction of the Afghan economy.[25] During his speech to the Seventy-fifth session of the United Nations General Assembly in 2020, during which he delivered his address in the Uzbek language (the first time that the language has been used in the UN), President Mirziyoyev discussed the "need to establish at the UN a Permanent Committee that will listen to the hopes and aspirations of the Afghan people".[26]