Candidate to presidency from Liberal-Democratic Party of Uzbekistan incumbent president Islam Karimov declared Uzbek soldiers should never participate in military actions outside the country.

During a meeting in Andijan region on March 10 as part of his election campaign, Karimov said: “Uzbekistan should not join any military block and/or allow deployment of military bases on its territory.”

On 3 August 2009 the foreign ministry of Uzbekistan criticized plans by Russia to establish a military base in southern Kyrgyzstan for the CSTO rapid reaction force, stating, “The implementation of such projects on complex and unpredictable territory, where the borders of three Central Asian republics directly converge, may give impetus to the strengthening of militarization processes and initiate all kinds of nationalistic confrontations. […] Also, it could lead to the appearance of radical extremist forces that could lead to serious destabilization this vast region.” While most Caucasus and Central Asian countries strengthen their collaboration inside CSTO, on June 2012, Uzbekistan suspended its membership in this organization. The decision was adopted as international forces are being withdrawn from Afghanistan and all Central Asian countries express serious concerns about the possible exacerbation of the situation in Afghanistan by 2014. One of the official explanations for Uzbekistan’s exit from the CSTO was that Uzbekistan disagreed with the organization’s stance on the Afghan issue. However, it seems that Tashkent wants to stay free from geopolitically obligations within this quasi-alliance and so please to western countries.