South Korea, Uzbekistan sign 13 agreements covering high-speed rail, biobank and more

South Korea and Uzbekistan signed 13 inter-governmental agreements and memoranda of understanding Monday, using a bilateral summit as the occasion to formalize cooperation on high-speed rail, a national biobank, defense industry ties and more. The two countries also agreed to build a financial support framework spanning strategic industries — from critical minerals and smart cities to pharmaceuticals and content — while significantly broadening cooperation into education, culture and judicial affairs.

The signing and exchange ceremony for the 13 documents took place immediately after President Lee Jae Myung and Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev concluded their summit at Cheong Wa Dae on Monday.

Among the agreements, the Export-Import Bank of Korea and Uzbekistan's Ministry of Investment, Industry and Trade signed an MOU to establish a framework for identifying strategic projects. The deal covers six national strategic industries designated by the Uzbek government — critical minerals, data centers, smart cities, industrial parks reserved for Korean companies, pharmaceuticals and biotech, and food, beauty and content — with the aim of identifying mutually beneficial projects and arranging project and commercial financing.

In infrastructure and healthcare, the two sides signed MOUs on the introduction of eight high-speed rail sets and the establishment of Uzbekistan's national genomics and biobank facility, the Biome Center. Cheong Wa Dae said the agreements would deepen bilateral cooperation in transport and health infrastructure, and that the scope of project collaboration could expand further depending on feasibility study results, providing a significant boost for Korean companies seeking to enter the Uzbek market.

Cooperation on intellectual property, education and the environment also took concrete shape. The two countries signed an MOU on border-level intellectual property protection — covering the interception of counterfeit goods bearing major brands and the crackdown on IP-infringing products — as well as a broader MOU on comprehensive IP cooperation. An MOU on early childhood and general education cooperation was adopted to expand exchanges at the preschool through secondary levels. Korean will also be added as an official subject in olympiads hosted by the Uzbek government, a move expected to raise the profile of the Korean language in the country. An MOU on digital forest restoration and climate response cooperation addresses transboundary environmental challenges in Central Asia, including the desertification of the Aral Sea and water resource disputes, as well as the broader climate crisis.

Additional agreements included an MOU on manufacturing AI transformation cooperation, an MOU on tourism cooperation, an MOU on agricultural cooperation covering the transfer of Korean farming technology, and an MOU on medical product regulatory cooperation. The two sides also signed a defense industry cooperation expansion contract, a prisoner transfer treaty, and a protocol amending the basic agreement on grant aid.