The rapidly evolving geopolitical and geostrategic landscape has catalyzed a renewed appreciation for the transformative role of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in Central Asia. Within the theoretical frameworks of complex interdependence and geo-economics the BRI operates not merely as an infrastructure program but as a structural reconfiguration of transnational economic space.

International scholarship has increasingly characterised Uzbekistan as a “bridge country” between East and West a framing that resonates with several theoretical traditions. Uzbekistan’s spatial position endows centrality within the historic Silk Road, adjacency to the largest consumer markets in Eurasia, and nodal positioning astride multiple BRI corridors.

In international relations theory, Uzbekistan exemplifies the strategy of multi-vector foreign policy and strategic hedging maintaining balanced diplomatic relations with China, Russia, the West, and regional powers while maximising developmental returns. This is not passive neutrality but an active agency-based approach to structural constraints, wherein a middle power leverages its geographic indispensability to shape the terms of great-power engagement.

The BRI represents a transformative institutional framework for Central Asia, operating through mechanisms: it addresses infrastructural deficits as binding constraints on growth, facilitates structural transformation from resource-dependent to diversified economies, and catalyses global value chain (GVC) integration. Through concessional and blended finance, technical assistance, and infrastructure development, the BRI generates positive externalities and spillover effects that transcend national boundaries.

The China-Uzbekistan strategic partnership thus embodies a developmental state model adapted to contemporary geo-economic conditions. Uzbekistan under President Shavkat Mirziyoyev the architect of the “New Uzbekistan” has pursued modernisation with performance-based........

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