Putin calls for expanding ties between Russia and Uzbekistan

TASHKENT, October 19. /TASS/. Uzbekistan is Russia’s reliable ally, the two countries will expand their bilateral cooperation, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with his Uzbek counterpart Shavkat Mirziyoyev. The Russian leader stressed that Uzbekistan is "Russia’s reliable ally and strategic partner." "We see how quickly and fundamentally the situation in Uzbekistan is changing, how reforms, which have long been overdue and are absolutely necessary to the Uzbek economy and Uzbek people, are organized and carried out," he said. Putin was certain that the economy and the life of people in Uzbekistan would be radically changing for the better in the long-term and mid-term perspective. "That makes it possible for us to develop relations on a new basis. It is thanks to those changes, which you are organizing in Uzbekistan, that we manage to considerably expand our trade and economic ties," he emphasized. "We are determined to proceed at the same pace. We will do the best we can to expand the basis of our cooperation, including through regional cooperation," the Russian leader went on to say. He pointed to the first Russian-Uzbek interregional forum underway in Tashkent. "I have no doubt whatsoever that those consultations, those negotiations that have been going on for the second day in a row, will yield very good results," Putin pointed out. For his part, Mirziyoyev said at the beginning of the conversation that strategic partnership and allied relations between the two counties had reached a totally new level over the past two years. "Our cooperation is developing in all areas," Uzbekistan’s president said. He singled out military-technical cooperation, science, education and culture among the areas of cooperation. He described the construction of Uzbekistan’s first nuclear power plant due to be launched with the two presidents’ participation on Friday as a new strategic area of cooperation. Mirziyoyev stressed that the bilateral trade turnover had grown nearly 30% during the first nine months of this year and was expected to reach $6 bln by the end of 2018. He was confident that Putin’s current state visit to Uzbekistan would give a strong impetus to bilateral ties in the future. Read more