Uzbekistan:
Uzbekistan is one of only two double landlocked countries in the world.
Amazing right?
Landlocked countries face the special challenge of having to rely on other countries with maritime borders for access to ocean trade routes. There are two landlocked countries in the world that are double landlocked, meaning that they are surrounded by countries that are themselves landlocked. The only two double landlocked countries of the world are Uzbekistan and Liechtenstein.
Uzbekistan is a relatively new country. Beforehand, it was one of the republics that made up the Soviet Union. During the Soviet era, Uzbekistan’s goods and people had direct access to the ocean by way of other Soviet republics, such as Russia, Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. But in 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed, and Uzbekistan became independent.
Independence for Uzbekistan meant that the country had no direct access to the ocean via other former Soviet republics that they had during the Soviet era. To improve the movements of goods, Uzbekistan has forged closer ties with Russia, which was the dominant force in the Soviet Union, and which is still the principle foreign influencer in Uzbekistan today.