SAMARKAND — Uzbekistan’s foreign minister signed the Artemis Accords with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday, Bakhtiyor Saidov wrote on his official Telegram channel, putting Tashkent’s name to a NASA and State Department framework for the Moon, Mars, comets and asteroids.
Saidov said the signing followed their bilateral talks and that Uzbekistan became the 77th country to sign. By TEH’s arithmetic, that is six countries in 49 days, counting from Türkiye, which NASA called the 71st when it signed on August 31. NASA and the State Department launched the accords in 2020 with seven other nations.
Saidov wrote that the document opens “new opportunities for Uzbekistan to expand cooperation with NASA and the space agencies of other participating countries, train national specialists and facilitate the transfer of space technologies.” He named no mission, payload, budget or date.
What Uzbekistan has committed to is on NASA’s Artemis Accords page, which says signatories pledge to share scientific data openly, publish their space policies and plans, and notify others of operations through “safety zones” meant to avoid harmful interference. Saidov’s post does not say whether Tashkent has a national space plan to publish.
The benefits are vaguer. NASA’s September 28 release, which counted 76 signatories, says the agency has invited every signatory to join its Moon Base through “scientific payloads, technology demonstrations, CubeSats, and other capabilities.” TEH has reported on the first Moon Base contracts. Nothing TEH read says Uzbekistan has accepted an invitation.
The signing was one item in a crowded day. Saidov also described the first meeting of an Enhanced Strategic Partnership Dialogue with Rubio, covering energy, critical minerals and advanced technologies, and a joint visit to an exhibition on shared history. It came two days after President Shavkat Mirziyoyev received Chinese Premier Li Qiang, his office said, a meeting TEH covered in Li Qiang’s Uzbekistan visit.
When TEH read it, NASA’s Artemis Accords page still listed San Marino, which signed on September 25, as the 76th and latest, and TEH found no NASA or State Department notice on Uzbekistan. For now the 77th count is Saidov’s alone. What the signing buys Uzbekistan beyond a seat in the group, he did not say.
