ALMATY, Kazakhstan: Ex-Soviet Uzbekistan’s new interim president Shavkat Mirziyoyev has ruled out military alliances, the government said Friday, following the same course as the late veteran strongman Islam Karimov.
Mirziyoyev — who served as the Central Asian country’s prime minister for nearly 13 years — is the frontrunner to replace Karimov in a presidential vote expected to take place within three months.
“The firm position of our country, as before, is non-membership in all military-political alliances and not allowing other states’ military bases and facilities on the territory of Uzbekistan,” Mirziyoyev told lawmakers, according to a foreign ministry statement.
“No one should doubt that any attempt by internal and external forces to encroach on the sovereignty and independence of our country will be severely suppressed.”
