SCIENTIFIC, EDUCATIONAL AND SPORTS RELATIONS BETWEEN THE REPUBLIC OF UZBEKISTAN AND THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN, 1991-2016

الملخص

This article examines the development of scientific, educational and sports relations between the Republic of Uzbekistan and the Islamic Republic of Iran from 1991 to 2016. Drawing on bilateral legal instruments, official historical records, contemporary media reports and secondary scholarly literature, the study reconstructs a formative phase of cooperation that has been sparsely documented in open sources for the Karimov era. The analysis demonstrates that legal and diplomatic foundations for scientific-technical collaboration were established almost immediately after Uzbekistan’s independence (notably the 1992 intergovernmental memorandum and the 1993 joint-commission protocol). Practical scientific priorities were defined in 2001, while sports exchanges, particularly in wrestling, attained a measurable scale by the early 2010s. Nevertheless, institutional density remained limited: large-scale joint research infrastructures, extensive higher-education programmes and formalised intergovernmental sports frameworks did not emerge. The period is therefore characterised as one of structured intent and selective implementation rather than mature integration. These foundations later enabled the more visible expansion of ties after 2016.