“I’d like to express my condolences from me personally and on behalf of the Georgian people to the president’s family and Uzbek people”, he added.
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Uzbekistan is set to bury long-ruling President Islam Karimov on September 3, a day after the government announced the death of the authoritarian leader following a stroke.
Loyalist Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyoyev is heading the organisation committee for the funeral, in a sign that he could be the frontrunner to take over long-term from Karimov. Analysts have all but ruled out the possibility of Yuldashev becoming permanent, despite having served in office for 16 years.
The veteran leader has run the Central Asian nation since 1989 and almost half of Uzbekistan’s 32 million citizens were born while he was in power.
An United Nations report has described the utilization of torture under Mr Karimov as “organized”.
If they fail to agree on a compromise, however, open confrontation could destabilise the mainly Muslim state that shares a border with Afghanistan and has become a target for Islamist militants.
“On behalf of Chinese President Xi Jinping, the Chinese government and people, I am extending deep condolences and honest sympathy to the Uzbek government and people as well as Karimov’s relatives”, Zhang said at the funeral after laying a wreath in front of Karimov’s portrait.
Well-informed opposition news outlets based overseas had claimed Karimov’s body was already brought to Samarkand ahead of the official announcement of his death, as the government delayed admitting his fate in a silence reminiscent of that which surrounded the deaths of Communist Party bosses during the Soviet period. So why did the Uzbek authorities hold back with their statement?
The late president was the secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in Uzbekistan from 1989 to 1991 and ruled the country since its independence in 1991. It is hard to know, in such a closed system.
A source in the government of neighboring Kazakhstan told Reuters on Friday that Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev planned to cut short his visit to China and travel to Uzbekistan on Saturday.
His deputy, Rustam Azimov, is also seen as a potential successor.
Karimov died after remaining 27 years in power apparently due to an illness and was taken to hospital last week after a brain haemorrhage.
“He has left us”, Karimov’s younger daughter Lola Karimova-Tillyaeva wrote on Instagram. “If a child of mine chose such a path, I myself would rip off his head”. But the PM of Turkey had sent condolences to Tashkent hours earlier – live on television – saying that the Uzbek leader had died.
On the sidelines of the funeral, Mirziyoyev met with his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev.
He has always been lambasted by critics for brutally crushing dissent – most prominently the deadly 2005 response to protests in the city of Andijan, where government forces were accused of killing hundreds of demonstrators.
Islam Abduganiyevich Karimov will live in our memories and hearts.
“What are we going to do without you?” a weeping mourner shouted.
In the past 25 years, under Karimov’s leadership, Uzbekistan has witnessed social stability, economic development, improvement in people’s livelihood and global status, with remarkable achievements in a wide range of areas, the Chinese vice premier added.
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Strains in relations with Moscow have appeared intermittently, notably when Tashkent suspended its membership of a Russian-led military alliance, the Collective Security Treaty Organisation.
