Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- On 1 February, the Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Investments and Foreign Trade of the Republic of Uzbekistan Sardor Umurzakov met with the Afghan delegation headed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan Muhammad Hanif Atmar and Chief of Staff of the President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan Muhammad Shakir Korgar at the Ministry of Investment and Foreign Trade.

The agenda included topical issues of political, investment, trade and economic, transport, logistics, financial and technical cooperation between the two countries.

The parties voiced their readiness to intensify interaction to increase the degree of Afghanistan’s involvement in the conjuncture of economic relations in Central Asia.

The parties discussed priority tasks for the implementation of joint cooperation projects in the fields of energy, trade and infrastructure development. In this context, further joint actions were agreed for the earliest start of work within the framework of the construction of the Surkhan-Puli-Khumri transmission line.

They considered promising measures to speed up the joint elaboration of a number of bilateral documents, in particular, an agreement on preferential trade between Uzbekistan and Afghanistan. An agreement was reached on stepping up work on coordinating issues of mutual interest. In addition, the sides discussed the prerequisites for starting the development of an agreement on transit traffic between Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan and the development of additional mechanisms to facilitate mutual trade.

Particular attention in the agenda was paid to issues related to the holding of the first meeting of the High-level Trilateral Working Group on the implementation of the project for the construction of the Mazar-i-Sharif - Kabul - Peshawar railway.

Following the meeting, the parties agreed to accelerate the joint elaboration of the "Road Map" to deepen cooperation in trade, economic, transport, logistics and cultural and humanitarian spheres with the aim of signing it as soon as possible. Further practical steps were also identified to implement the planned initiatives and agreements.