On July 28, the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev received a delegation of the People’s Republic of China headed by a member of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China, Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi, who arrived in Uzbekistan to attend the events of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the SCO Member States.
The topical issues of further strengthening the Uzbek-Chinese relations of comprehensive strategic partnership and expanding the multifaceted cooperation between the two countries were discussed.
There was an exchange of views on the prospects for deepening regional interaction, including the agenda of the upcoming Samarkand Summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
At the beginning of the meeting, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of China conveyed the sincere greetings and the best wishes of President Xi Jinping to the President of Uzbekistan. It is emphasized that the Chinese side highly appreciates the current level of bilateral relations, developing on an upward trajectory. Full support was expressed for the ongoing political transformations and socio-economic reforms in the New Uzbekistan.
It should be noted that China is traditionally one of the leading and reliable partners of Uzbekistan. The trade-economic and investment cooperation is developing dynamically. The trade turnover has increased by 35% since the beginning of this year. It is expected that the trade turnover indicators will approach to $10 billion by the end of this year.
A range of large investment projects of industrial cooperation and infrastructure modernization are being implemented with the participation of Chinese companies and banking institutions. The volume of investments in Uzbekistan’s economy has exceeded $10 billion in recent years.
The President of Uzbekistan emphasized the opportunities available for the cardinal expansion of mutually beneficial cooperation, primarily in such areas as the poverty alleviation, agricultural and industrial exports, innovation, alternative energy, cloud technologies, IT sector and others.
A special attention was paid to the promotion of humanitarian exchange programs, including education, healthcare, the production of vaccine and specialized medical institutions.
The issues related to accelerating the preparation and implementation of strategic regional projects, primarily, «China – Kyrgyzstan – Uzbekistan» and «Termez – Mazār-i-Sharīf – Kabul – Peshawar» railways were considered.
The mutual efforts to provide practical assistance to the peaceful development and economic reconstruction of Afghanistan were supported at the meeting. The Chinese delegation highly appreciated the productive outcomes of the Tashkent conference on these issues.