Usbekistan

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has arrived in Samarkand to meet the leaders and foreign ministers of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan for several days of high-level diplomatic engagement that Washington hopes will translate into concrete economic and security cooperation. 

Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev proposed on Sunday forming a regional co-operation organisation he called the "Community of Central Asia", in what he said was a bid to promote economic integration in the region of more than 80 million people.

Parties loyal to Uzbekistan’s president swept parliament seats, according to official results released on Monday, in an election devoid of any real opposition in the tightly controlled Central Asian country.

Uzbekistan's Central Election Commission announced on July 26 that parliamentary and local elections will be held in the Central Asian nation on October 27.

The French leader's visit comes as European nations jostle for influence in the resource-rich region, where Russia, China, Turkey and Europe all have economic interests.

Shavkat Mirziyoev was overwhelmingly reelected on July 9 for a third term as president of the repressive Central Asian nation of Uzbekistan in a snap poll that an international monitoring mission said was "lacking genuine competition."

The only element of uncertainty in Uzbekistan’s presidential election on July 9 is how big a victory the incumbent, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, will score. The vote is taking place just two months after a constitutional referendum that saw the presidential term extended from five to seven years. 

Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has announced snap elections less than a week after securing public approval for a new constitution that opens the door for him to extend his time in office by more than a decade.

Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev said on Monday he was calling a snap presidential election on July 9 to give himself a new mandate to help deal with "sharp and complex processes" going on in the world.

Uzbekistan overwhelmingly approved constitutional changes that will allow President Shavkat Mirziyoyev to remain in power until 2040 in a tightly-controlled referendum slammed by international observers as flawed.