Which Asian country is one of the world’s two doubly landlocked countries? Uzbekistan.
Uzbekistan is doubly landlocked because every country bordering it is itself landlocked. Its neighbors are Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and Turkmenistan—all countries without a coastline. The only other doubly landlocked country is Liechtenstein, in Europe.
Uzbekistan’s unusual geography is a legacy of Central Asia’s borders and its position between major mountain and steppe regions. Although it has no ocean coastline, the country contains the shrinking Aral Sea and shares important river systems, including the Amu Darya and Syr Darya basins.
A common mix-up is Kazakhstan, which is also landlocked and borders Uzbekistan. Kazakhstan does have a shoreline on the Caspian Sea, but the Caspian is an enclosed inland body of water rather than an ocean. Uzbekistan became independent from the Soviet Union in 1991 and is Central Asia’s most populous country.