우즈베키스탄과 한국의 에너지·자원 협력에 대한 고찰: 특성과 과제를 중심으로

Abstract

This paper examines the characteristics of the domestic and international geopolitical factors that are important for the national development and foreign policies of Uzbekistan in the flow of the political situation of Central Asia in the post-Cold War era. Towards this end, the characteristics of Uzbekistan's strategic relationship with South Korea and the tasks related to the promotion of energy resources cooperation between the two countries, which are critical geopolitical factors for the national development of Uzbekistan, which form a correlation, and which act as important influential factors for foreign policies, are examined. Uzbekistan is a country where the official and unofficial political systems are mixed under the governance of one person, a situation that came about through its transformation from socialism to democracy when it gained its independence from the old SovietUnion in 1991. Uzbekistan, however, still has the possibility of having superior human resources and a superior market scale, among other potentials, with its consistent population growth, compared to the other Central Asian countries. Based on its energyresources diplomacy, which is the most important geopolitical factor in Uzbekistan, it strengthens its cooperation and exchanges with South Korea. The two countries promoted a "strategic-companion relationship" between them in 2006, and their human and cultural exchanges have since been expanding through the visits that had been paid not only by both countries' high-ranking government officials, including their President and Prime Minister, but also by important people in the private sector. Based on the domestic and international geopolitical features of Uzbekistan, South Korea should strengthen its trust of it through the separation of the economy and politics-based diplomacy as well as summit diplomacy. South Korea should make Uzbekistan its stepping stone in its expansion of its "spatial scope," and as an alternative market for the continental market beyond China based on its energy resources diplomacy with it. Further, South Korea should try hard to promote energy resources cooperation andprivate exchanges and cooperation, and to extend its relations, with the other Central Asian countries. Considering the characteristics of Uzbekistan's political system, it is necessary to promote an actual human network among the political elites thereinas well as relationships with its private sector. It is also necessary to implement substantial development measures as mutually optimal strategic cooperation partners through the search for economic-cooperation projects, to satisfy the "strategic interests" between the two countries.