Uzbekistan, officially the Republic of Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country located in Central Asia.
It is surrounded by five landlocked countries: Kazakhstan to the north; Kyrgyzstan to the northeast; Tajikistan to the southeast; Afghanistanto the south; and Turkmenistan to the southwest.
The total area of Uzbekistan is 448 924км² and is the 56th in the world.
Its capital and largest city is Tashkent with 3 mln people population.
As of July 1, 2021, the permanent population of the republic is 34,860,170 people.
The official language of Uzbekistan is Uzbek. The second most important language is Russian, which is spoken by a significant part of the population and is widely spoken in the country.
The national currency is Sum, which was introduced on July 1, 1994. $1 = 11200 UZS (2022).
Uzbekistan is a secular state, with a presidential constitutional government in place. The head of state is the president. The highest state representative body is the Oliy Majlis of the Republic of Uzbekistan, which exercises legislative power. The Oliy Majlis consists of two chambers - the legislative chamber (lower house) and the Senate (upper house). The executive body of the country is the Cabinet of Ministers of Uzbekistan.
The Uzbek economy is in a gradual transition to the market economy, with foreign trade policy being based on import substitution. Uzbekistan is a major producer and exporter of cotton.
Uzbekistan is a member of the United Nations (UN), the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC), Partnership for Peace (PfP), and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), United Nations and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), the Organization of Turkic States, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO).
In December 1994 Uzbekistan applied for the World Trade Organization membership and received an observer status to start the accession process.
After Uzbekistan declared independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, the first President was Islam Karimov, who served till his death.
Following Islam Karimov's death on 2 September 2016, the Oliy Majlis appointed Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyoyev as interim president.
Mirziyoyev was subsequently elected as the country's second president in the December 2016 presidential election, winning 88.6% of the vote, and was sworn in on 14 December.
President of Uzbekistan is Shavkat Mirziyoyev (65) since 2017. Re-elected in 2022.