President Shavkat Mirziyoyev signed an order on December 29 appointing Zhavlon Vakhabov as the director of the International Institute of Central Asia (IICA).
Zhavlon Vakhabov was the Ambassador to the United States of America from October 2017 to the spring of 2023, concurrently serving as the ambassador to Canada and Brazil. Previously, he worked as First Deputy and Deputy Foreign Minister.
The International Institute of Central Asia was set up in 2020, its building was inaugurated in Tashkent in the summer of 2021. This public research institution studies regional processes and international relations related to Central Asia.
Since January 2023, Vladimir Norov had been the director of the institute. He announced in June that he was retiring.
