Shavkat Khamrakulov

Shavkat Khamrakulov represented Uzbekistan in Washington during the expansion of American involvement in Central Asia after September 11, 2001. Journalist Toshpo‘lat Rahmatullayev, visiting the United States in September–October that year, described conversations with him at the embassy on Massachusetts Avenue and while walking through Washington. Khamrakulov spoke about growing American interest in Uzbekistan and the changing relationship between the two countries. The encounter appears in Rahmatullayev’s 2003 account of American journalism and society. ¹

His embassy also presented Uzbek art to Washington audiences. A December 2002 report described an exhibition of about thirty paintings by the Samarkand artist Asliddin Isaev, jointly organized by the embassy and Uzbek cultural institutions. Khamrakulov spoke at the opening about the cultural dimension of relations with the United States. The University of Georgia subsequently listed him as a planned participant in its February 2003 ambassadors’ roundtable on Central Asia and the war on terror, alongside diplomats representing Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, and the Organization of the Islamic Conference. ^{2, 3}