Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- On 19 September 2022, in New York, on the sidelines of the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly, a meeting was held between the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Uzbekistan Vladimir Norov and the Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Qu Dongyu.

Vladimir Norov said that Uzbekistan considers FAO as an important global multilateral platform for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

Recent years have been a period of unprecedented intensification of cooperation between Uzbekistan and FAO. Through joint efforts, the FAO portfolio in Uzbekistan reached 59 national, regional and global projects totaling US$65 million. Uzbekistan successfully chaired the 32nd FAO Regional Conference for Europe, for the first time in the history of the Central Asia region. The importance of the integrated implementation of the Framework Program signed between Uzbekistan and FAO to support the implementation of the Uzbekistan Agriculture Development Strategy for 2020-2030 was noted.

Qu Dongyu supported the initiative put forward by the President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev at the SCO Summit in Samarkand to hold the International Conference on Food Security in 2023.

The FAO Director-General highly appreciated the modern progress of Uzbekistan and assured of the readiness of the Organization to provide all possible assistance in the implementation of joint projects on ensuring food security, combating climate change, diversifying agriculture, and introducing water-saving technologies.