EU ministers have lifted an arms embargo on Uzbekistan in a decision that has little to do with human rights and a lot to do with German military co-operation with the Central Asian dictatorship, analysts believe.
The EU statement on Tuesday (27 October) said the union is "seriously concerned" about human rights abuses in Uzbekistan and would "assess progress" in EU-Uzbek relations one year down the line, while scrapping the arms ban.
The embargo was imposed in 2005 after Uzbek s...
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Andrew Rettman is EUobserver's foreign editor, writing about foreign and security issues since 2005. He is Polish, but grew up in the UK, and lives in Brussels. He has also written for The Guardian, The Times of London, and Intelligence Online.