President of Russia and Uzbekistan hold talks

On the invitation of President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov, President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin arrived in Uzbekistan with an official visit on 10 December.

The two leaders had a one-on-one meeting and then continued their talks with their delegations present. The talks were preceded by an official welcome ceremony.

Uzbek President said: “Mr President, we see this visit as continuing the political dialogue that is so particularly important today, and also as a good opportunity to discuss bilateral and multilateral issues, make decisions on areas where adjustments are needed, and, especially important in today’s context, set priorities and define our common positions and objectives so as to ensure that we put concrete substance into the Agreement on Strategic Partnership and Agreement on Alliance.”

“We all see that the world is in a state of great tension at the moment and we see the confrontation taking place and the conflicts that continue in various parts of the world. In this situation, there is no need to explain that your official visit to Uzbekistan is particularly important because we need to not just respond to these challenges but above all to compare our positions and settle the areas in which we have common goals and common views,” Uzbek leader noted.

“I thus see this as a chance to exchange views with you on key issues, above all the matters on our bilateral agenda, but also issues of great importance in terms of ensuring peace and stability in the complicated Central Asian region,” he noted.

“This is all the more important when the Afghanistan issue is still far from resolved. Russia has interests here too and has always had a stabilising presence in Central Asia, and so I think that in this context an exchange of views on what will happen following the withdrawal of the international forces there is of interest for all countries in this region. Of course nothing can be settled here without Russia’s involvement too. These are the most important and topical issues that I would like to discuss with you today,” President Islam Karimov said.

“The main thing I want to say once again though is that Uzbekistan has always been open to Russia and this remains the case today. We have always taken pride in the thousands of ties and threads that bind our peoples together. I think it would be futile on the part of anyone to try to or seek to ignore these common ties we share,” the Uzbek President noted.

“I say this all the more so as the guesses and talk that come up with all sorts of scenarios are for people who have nothing better to do. I think that there is clearly no point in wasting much energy over this, for these are futile undertakings,” Islam Karimov said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said: “It is always a great pleasure to visit Tashkent and enjoy the warm atmosphere that you always create during our contacts. Uzbekistan will soon start preparing for its next big rounds of elections, first the parliamentary election, and then the presidential election, and so I want to start our talks today by wishing you all the best of luck in organising these big events.”

“As for our relations, I agree with you of course that they are of great importance for both countries. In developing our relations, we follow the principles set out in our basic agreements,” he added.

“The Agreement on Alliance is one of these basic agreements. We place great significance on this word. Our political contacts are growing all the time at every level – at parliamentary level, at the government level, and between you and I too,” Russian leader noted.

“Russia is indisputably Uzbekistan’s biggest trade and economic partner and we will try to maintain this high level. Uzbekistan is one of Russia’s priority partners in the region of course. This is only natural given that Uzbekistan is one of the region’s biggest countries,” he underlined.

“Neither you nor we are indifferent to developments in the region in general. I am therefore very pleased to have this chance to meet with you and discuss the broad range of issues before us,” Putin said.

“We have big plans for developing our relations in other areas too. I am referring above all to the real sector of the economy, the energy sector, which was spoken about already, oil and gas. We are working together on research in nuclear energy and in this field too we have agreements in place between Uzbekistani and Russian partners,” Putin stated at the meeting with participation of the delegations of Uzbekistan and Russia.

“We will also continue our efforts on both sides in the traditional area of military technical cooperation. I hope that we will have the chance to discuss this in more detail during today’s visit and make the needed decisions,” Vladimir Putin underlined.

“We are very happy to see that Russia remains solidly in first place among Uzbekistan’s trade and economic partners in terms of trade turnover. Uzbekistan is a privileged partner in trade with Russia. At the same time though, we think that there is still a lot more we could do to increase our bilateral trade,” the Russian President said.

“There is no doubt that the integration processes underway in the post-Soviet area will improve the trade and economic climate and we must make every possible effort to ensure that this happens in practice. Nothing should get in the way of our bilateral trade and economic ties. On the contrary, we must do everything possible to facilitate their development,” Putin added.

In his turn, Uzbek President Islam Karimov said he hopes for support of Russia in connection with worsening situation in Afghanistan, which can follow Iraqi scenario once international coalition forces pulled from the country. He said that Islamic State militants can enter Afghanistan.

Uzbek leader underlined that Uzbekistan and Russia should expand contacts in direction of military-technical cooperation.

Islam Karimov also supported Russian position on development of the CIS and SCO. Uzbek leader said that Uzbekistan and Russia are closely cooperating within the international organizations such as UN, SCI, CIS and others. He said that Uzbekistan shares position of Russia on CIS that the organization should be kept and its creative potential should be developed.

The two presidents witnessed the signing of a number of bilateral agreements following the talks, including an intergovernmental agreement on the priority areas for developing and deepening economic cooperation in 2015-2019, an intergovernmental agreement on regulating reciprocal financial claims and obligations, a protocol on cooperation in fighting drugs, and a cooperation programme between the two countries’ foreign ministries.