Aliyev's Uzbekistan visit: 'Eternal friendship' and family business expansion
Ilham Aliyev’s visit to Uzbekistan
The state visit to Tashkent was presented by official media as a “new, symbolic and practical stage” in relations between Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan.
Presidents Ilham Aliyev and Shavkat Mirziyoyev held a one-on-one meeting, chaired the third meeting of the Supreme Interstate Council, signed a “Treaty on Eternal Friendship”, awarded each other their countries’ highest state honours, and took part in ceremonies marking the opening and laying of foundations for Azerbaijani investment projects in Uzbekistan.
However, behind the official statements and rhetoric about “brotherhood” lie specific financial and business interests. Against the backdrop of the visit, attention has also focused on the parallel expansion of private companies directly or indirectly linked to Ilham Aliyev’s family, including PASHA Holding and Emin Agalarov’s Sea Breeze project.
What happened?
The main document signed during the visit was the “Treaty on Eternal Friendship”. Under the treaty, the two sides intend to build relations based on the principles of eternal friendship, mutual trust, strategic partnership and alliance, as well as support each other’s national development models. They undertake not to join blocs or alliances that could harm the other side’s sovereignty, security or territorial integrity, and not to allow their territory to be used by third parties for such purposes or for the activities of such groups.
Areas of cooperation outlined in the treaty include strengthening the UN’s central role, developing interparliamentary ties, trade and investment, including in energy, transport and logistics, digital development, agriculture, the green and digital economies, e-commerce, ICT and space technologies. The treaty also provides for the development of interconnected transport systems, the preservation of cultural and humanitarian ties, language learning, scientific and educational exchanges, interregional cooperation and tourism.
The heads of state exchanged their countries’ highest state honours, with Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev receiving the Heydar Aliyev Order. Ceremonies were also held to open and lay the foundations for specific Azerbaijani projects in Uzbekistan, including hotel and residential complexes, tourism facilities, a building for the Nizami Ganjavi University, an “Azerbaijan” park and other facilities.
Joint projects have been launched in banking and finance, construction materials production, education, the oil and gas sector, tourism, housing construction, mining and agriculture. A corresponding “road map” was also adopted.
Azerbaijan’s state-owned bank enters Uzbek market
President Ilham Aliyev cited several specific examples of cooperation, including the entry of a leading Azerbaijani bank into the Uzbek market, the expansion of SOCAR’s retail network, oil and gas exploration nearing its final stage, and the prospect of drilling production wells next year.
The bank in question is the International Bank of Azerbaijan (ABB), the country’s largest state-owned bank, with around 88–92% of its shares held by the Finance Ministry and other state bodies. ABB is acquiring a 51% controlling stake in the privately owned Uzbek bank Davr Bank, investing more than $100m in the deal.
Despite its state-owned status, ABB was previously implicated in the Azerbaijani Laundromat scandal, involving a $2.9bn money-laundering scheme. The bank is now entering the Uzbek market with the backing of state resources and political will. The deal is being presented as a purely commercial decision, but comes against the backdrop of a strengthening political alliance between the two countries.
Economy Minister Mikayil Jabbarov announced the deal at an interregional forum a day before the visit, and it was formally concluded on the day of the visit. ABB will operate in Uzbekistan under the Davr Bank brand. The bank has assets of around $1bn, a customer base of 1.4 million and a network of 43 branches. Fitch Ratings expects the deal to be completed by the fourth quarter of 2026.
Expansion of businesses linked to Aliyev family
Alongside the official banking deal, several private projects have also attracted attention during the visit and in the preceding period. Some are linked to companies and structures directly or indirectly associated with the president’s family.
- Sea Breeze Uzbekistan: A $5bn resort project being developed by Agalarov Development, owned by Emin Agalarov, the former husband of President Aliyev’s daughter Leyla Aliyeva. The complex is planned for a 577-hectare site on the shores of the Charvak Reservoir. In 2025, the project was presented directly to Mirziyoyev and fast-tracked without a tender, while the environmental assessment had not yet been fully completed. A foundation-laying ceremony took place on the day of the visit. Although Agalarov is no longer related to the presidential family by marriage, he continues to enjoy high-level political support.
- PASHA Holding projects: The holding company, which has been linked to the president’s daughters Leyla and Arzu Aliyeva, as well as to Mehriban Aliyeva’s father Arif Pashayev, is building a Ritz-Carlton-branded hotel and residential complex in Tashkent. The group includes private lenders Kapital Bank and PASHA Bank. Banks linked to the family control a significant share of Azerbaijan’s banking-sector assets — more than 40%, according to some estimates.
- SOCAR: Azerbaijan’s state oil company is also entering Uzbekistan’s retail fuel market and plans to establish a network of filling stations there. At the same time, the company plans to cooperate with BP and Uzbekneftegaz on the Ustyurt field. SOCAR has also faced questions over transparency in the past, including in connection with the Azerbaijani Laundromat scandal.
- Other projects: Other businesses entering the Uzbek market include the Matanat-A gypsum plant, Landau STEAM schools, the Sur gold and silver processing plant, Gold Fresh Fruits orchards, the Baku City residential complex and other projects. Some are being implemented as public-private partnerships.
Statements by the two presidents
President Ilham Aliyev said in a statement to the press that relations between the two countries were built “on a very solid foundation, both spiritually and materially”. He said the range of projects under discussion in energy, transport, investment, tourism, mining, automotive manufacturing, agriculture, processing and banking gave the cooperation an “unprecedented character”.
Aliyev said that on every visit he was struck by the rapid development of Tashkent and Uzbekistan as a whole. He said increasing bilateral trade to $1bn was “no longer a dream of the distant future, but a target that can be achieved within a few years”. He also highlighted Mirziyoyev’s particular role in attracting investment to Karabakh and invited him to make a state visit to Azerbaijan at a time convenient to him.
Shavkat Mirziyoyev described Aliyev’s visit as a “historic event”, saying the “Treaty on Eternal Friendship” was evidence of this and that the provisions on strategic partnership and alliance were being backed up by concrete action. In his remarks, he highlighted a threefold increase in bilateral trade over the past five years, the goal of raising it to $1bn, the joint development of the Middle Corridor, and the idea of creating a separate Azerbaijani-Uzbek corridor across the Caspian Sea with a single operator.
Mirziyoyev also said the two countries spoke “with one voice” on the international stage. He described Azerbaijan’s full participation in the consultative meetings of Central Asian heads of state as a historic step and praised Aliyev’s policy of restoring Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity, as well as the meeting in Washington and the declaration signed there.
Hikmet Hajiyev, a representative of the Azerbaijani presidential administration, said before and during the visit that relations between the two countries had reached a new level: moving from strategic partnership to alliance and then to “eternal friendship”. He said this was the first such step in the history of Azerbaijani diplomacy. According to Hajiyev, the “eternal friendship” that had already existed de facto between the two peoples had now been formally enshrined at the political level as well.
