President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev arrived on an official visit to the capital of Turkiye, Ankara, where he is expected to have a busy schedule of bilateral negotiations and events, reports the press service of the Uzbek leader.
On June 6, the head of the Uzbek state will participate in a meeting of the strategic partnership council between the two countries, where a wide range of issues of cooperation in the political, trade-economic, educational, cultural, transport, and investment spheres are planned to be discussed.
Additionally, as part of the visit, a meeting is scheduled between the Presidents of Uzbekistan and Turkiye, Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, with representatives of the business communities of the two countries to strengthen ties between entrepreneurial circles.
At the Ankara airport, Shavkat Mirziyoyev and his spouse were met by the Vice President of Turkiye, Cevdet Yılmaz, which underscores the high level of relations between the two states.
It is worth noting that Turkiye was the first country to recognize the independence of Uzbekistan on December 16, 1991, just a few months after the republic proclaimed its sovereignty.
Diplomatic relations between the countries were established on March 4, 1992, and the Turkish diplomatic mission in Tashkent became the first to open in Uzbekistan in April of the same year.
For more than two decades, Uzbek-Turkish relations have experienced both periods of growth and temporary declines. However, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s visit to Samarkand in November 2016 laid the foundation for elevating bilateral cooperation to a new level of strategic partnership.
In the subsequent years, active steps were taken to deepen interactions, including holding regular meetings of the Joint Economic Commission and the High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council chaired by the leaders of the two states.
The current visit of Shavkat Mirziyoyev to Ankara will continue the strategic dialogue between the countries and is expected to further strengthen bilateral partnership. On the agenda is the signing of a number of bilateral agreements and discussion of prospects for developing trade-economic relations.
Today, Turkiye is one of Uzbekistan's key trading partners, demonstrating steady growth in mutual trade turnover, which exceeded $3.1 billion in 2023.
Turkiye's exports to Uzbekistan amounted to $1.85 billion, while imports from Uzbekistan reached $1.248 billion.
Thus, the current visit of the President of Uzbekistan to Turkiye opens new prospects for deepening strategic dialogue and strengthening multifaceted cooperation between the two friendly countries for the benefit of their peoples.
CentralasianLIGHT.org
June 6, 2024