The BRICS Summit will be held in Kazan on October 22-24 this year. The participants of the upcoming event plan to discuss the prospects for further strengthening the comprehensive partnership and issues related to new formats of interaction between the countries within the framework of BRICS Plus. The summit is expected to be attended by 32 countries, 24 of which will be represented at the highest level. In addition, the Secretaries General of such international organizations as the UN, the SCO, the CIS, and the EAEU have traditionally been invited.

What is interesting about BRICS?

We have recently witnessed active expert discussions about the future of BRICS and its role in developing international cooperation. Today, the countries of this organization occupy 34% of the earth’s territory, have 45% of the world’s population, and provide about a quarter of the world’s goods exports. According to expert forecasts, by 2028, the BRICS countries’ GDP at purchasing power parity will be about 37% of the world’s total.

The BRICS countries also play a significant role in the global energy agenda, occupying leading positions in traditional energy. The association’s members produce and consume three-quarters of the world’s coal and about 40% of the world’s natural gas. With the group’s expansion in 2024, the BRICS share of the global oil market exceeded 40%.

Along with enormous human and natural resources, the rapid development of modern technologies is one factor that ensures the association’s significant attractiveness. The BRICS countries account for 17% of global investments in technological research and innovation and 27% of publications in scientific journals.

Particular attention should be paid to the scientific interaction by BRICS working groups on various issues, including biotechnology and biomedicine, information and communication technologies, renewable energy sources, etc.

To develop the practice of exchanging experience in this area, technology transfer centers of the BRICS countries have been created. Forums of young scientists, meetings of representatives of academies of sciences, and conferences on technological foresight and innovation policy are regularly held.

It is also impossible not to note the work of existing multilateral mechanisms in BRICS, such as the “Global Network of BRICS Research Infrastructures”, “BRICS Virtual Institute of Photonics”, “BRICS Network Center for Materials Science and Nanotechnology”, “BRICS Water Forum” and others. Their activities allow for inclusive interaction in various areas, requiring the introduction of modern, innovative developments.

Over the last 15 years, the BRICS has been intensively developing a system of ties between the member states, including coordination of foreign policy, economic partnership, convergence of national legislation, and the development of common financial and investment institutions (the New Development Bank and the Contingent Reserve Arrangement). As a result, 933 decisions were adopted by the BRICS members during this period. Despite their non-binding nature, the level of voluntary implementation of these decisions by the BRICS countries is 77%. 

All this has significantly increased the economic benefits for the organization’s members. For example, over the past 20 years, the share of mutual trade between BRICS member countries has doubled and reached 40%. Not surprisingly, this approach to cooperation attracts more and more participants every year interested in increasing their practical interaction with the dynamic BRICS countries. In 2024, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates joined the group. Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and Türkiye became candidates for BRICS membership the same year.

Uzbekistan in interaction with BRICS countries

The Republic of Uzbekistan is demonstrating growing interest in interaction with the BRICS group, as this opens up specific opportunities for the country to develop its national economy, which is faced with permanent tasks of modernization, expansion, and diversification of exports, and attraction of foreign investment.

Notably, in recent years, the expansion of Uzbekistan’s foreign economic ties with the association’s members has been progressive. There has been a consistent increase in trade turnover. As a result, BRICS states are currently among the top 20 major trading partners of Uzbekistan – in 2023, trade turnover increased by 27% and amounted to over 25 billion dollars. At the same time, exports increased to 5.9 billion dollars and imports to 19.2 billion dollars.

Thus, the exponential growth of trade and economic exchanges has been the basis of Uzbekistan’s interaction with the BRICS countries, which has given impetus to the practical development of productive commercial contacts. 

An important factor behind such a dynamic of engagement with the group is the special nature of bilateral relations with each of the BRICS countries due to both the historical trajectory of ties and the high level of trade-economic and scientific-technical cooperation.

For instance, the Republic of Uzbekistan and China have brought their relations to the level of an all-weather comprehensive strategic partnership in 2024. Favorable macroeconomic conditions and mutual commercial interest have rapidly increased economic and investment opportunities. Last year, bilateral trade turnover amounted to 13.7 billion dollars. China’s share of the total foreign trade turnover in Uzbekistan reached 21.9%. At the same time, every intention is to bring the trade turnover to 20 billion dollars in the coming years. 

Such momentum undoubtedly testifies to the increased mutual interest in further expanding business contacts and comprehensive financial and economic cooperation between the business communities of the two countries.

At the same time, relations between Uzbekistan and Russia have reached the level of strategic partnership. Herewith, all spheres of bilateral interaction have been noticeably diversified. This was evident in the increasing number of trade-economic and scientific-technical exchanges and new formats in business, science, and culture. 

The Russian market has become important for Uzbekistan’s exporters of agricultural, textile, and industrial goods, while Russian enterprises have become suppliers of equipment, machinery, and energy products to Uzbekistan.

As a result, in 2023, mutual trade turnover came close to 10 billion dollars, which exceeded the level of 2017 by 2.1 times. Russia ranks first in the number of enterprises with foreign capital in Uzbekistan – more than 3 thousand companies and the volume of investments over the past 7 years has exceeded 10 billion dollars. Thus, Uzbekistan and Russia were able to find a solution to the principal task in the trade and economic relations and start the transition from classical commodity exchange to multi-disciplinary industrial-investment interaction and implementation of many bilateral projects.

The strategic partnership is also being developed with India. Over the last six years, the number of joint ventures has increased fivefold. Investment projects in IT, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, agriculture, and tourism are being successfully implemented. Mutual trade is planned to reach $1 billion in the coming years.

Thus, for the Republic of Uzbekistan, an open economy country, establishing interaction with the BRICS countries is a rather urgent task. In the context of large-scale reforms carried out in the country to improve the investment environment, import innovations, and create technological projects with the participation of foreign partners, the enormous potential of the BRICS can serve as an important instrument in achieving the objectives set for Uzbekistan.

This is especially important since Uzbekistan’s course of innovative transformation largely coincides with the strategy of international scientific and technological partnership within the framework of BRICS, whose members are increasingly willing to interact in various fields of physics, medicine, biotechnology, and ICT. Given the rapid dynamics of global geo-economic, technological, trade, and political changes, intensifying scientific and technological cooperation on the BRICS platform is becoming a political and economic imperative for Uzbekistan.

It is no coincidence that during his participation in the High-Level Dialogue on Global Development in the BRICS+ format in June 2022, President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev indicated priority areas of broad international cooperation, in which much attention was paid, above all, to the need to join efforts in innovation and technology transfer, digitalization, biotechnology and other branches of scientific and technological cooperation.

At the same time, opportunities for multilateral trade cooperation between the BRICS countries and a joint search for solutions in transportation, logistics, and customs cooperation are encouraging. Strengthening cooperation with the BRICS countries will make it possible to jointly address emerging issues, taking into consideration the degree of their complexity and significance for the partner countries, which is of particular interest to Uzbekistan. 

Further simplification of trade procedures will not only help reduce transaction costs, improve product competitiveness, and increase trade flows, but it will also contribute to further improving the investment and business environment and optimizing the efficient allocation of BRICS economic resources.

Expansion of Uzbekistan’s interaction with the BRICS countries will ultimately ensure the development of more effective bilateral and multilateral trade and create conditions for increased flows of mutual investments, thereby strengthening economic growth and increasing the level of competitiveness of Uzbekistan’s economy in the international arena. 

Alexey Kustov

Chief Researcher,

Institute of Strategic and Regional Studies under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan