EU Special Representative for Central Asia visits Tashkent

Ambassador Flor held constructive meetings with First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Rustam Azimov, Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdulaziz Kamilov, Deputy Minister of Economy Dilmurod Turdiev, and Deputy Minister for Agriculture and Water Management Shavkat Khamraev. As part of her program, she also met with representatives of civil society.

Ambassador Flor exchanged views with her interlocutors on the developments in Uzbekistan in areas of EU – Uzbekistan cooperation, including security, energy, water management, economic cooperation, and governance.

She discussed prospects for EU assistance to Uzbekistan in 2014 and beyond including the EU support for rural development in the country and the launch of EU – Uzbekistan bi-lateral dialogue on water policy in the framework of the EU Water Initiative. In her meetings she stressed EU commitment to assist Uzbekistan in strengthening the rule of law and discussed human rights issues, including individual cases.

The two sides also discussed opportunities for scaling up bilateral trade and investment cooperation and main developments in the wider region of Central Asia.

The EU Special Representative thanked her interlocutors in Uzbekistan for their hospitality and stressed that she looked forward to further consolidation of the positive momentum in the development of EU – Uzbekistan relations and its translations into further advancement of existing and new opportunities in all areas of cooperation.