European Union dropped last sanctions against Uzbekistan
On October 27 at the meeting in Luxemburg EU Foreign Ministers decided to cancel arms embargo against Uzbekistan, RIA Novosti reports with the reference to EU Council press-service.
Earlier such move was approved by EU ambassadors; therefore, the ministers made a decision without preliminary discussion.
"The council made a decision not to resume sanctions in order to motivate Uzbek government to make further substantial steps to improve law and order, human rights, considering current liabilities of Uzbek government", the agency interviewee said.
Ferghana.Ru reported earlier that the sanctions against Uzbek government were imposed by EU in 2005, following the shooting of demonstrators in the city of Andijan. At that time EU demanded international investigation. In its turn, the Uzbek government refused to do that. The sanctions included embargo on arms, military equipment; besides, twelve senior Uzbek officials, responsible for the Andijan massacre, were proclaimed personae non grata in EU. EU also reduced financial aid to Tashkent and imposed trade restrictions.
Most of the sanctions were removed in November of 2008 after the appropriate decision, taken at European Union Foreign Ministers session in October. EU motivated such decision by the fact that Uzbekistan demonstrated significant progress in the field of human rights.