Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) - The 20th meeting of the Intergovernmental Commission on Economic Cooperation between Russia and Uzbekistan was held in Moscow on 24 April.

The event was chaired by Minister of Economy and Industry of the Republic of Uzbekistan B. Khojaev and Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation Maxim Oreshkin.

Before the meeting of the Commission, the parties held substantive talks in a narrow composition. The ministers discussed the current state of bilateral cooperation and the prospects for its further development.

The parties discussed issues of preparation for the meeting of the Joint Commission at the level of heads of government of Uzbekistan and Russia.

During the meeting of the commission, the delegations of the two countries heard information on the implementation of the decisions of the protocol of the nineteenth meeting of the Commission.

The parties also considered the development of trade and economic cooperation, including in the fuel and energy complex, the nuclear industry, industry, agriculture and transport.

Representatives of Uzbekistan and the Russian Federation expressed interest in further expanding cooperation in the fields of communications, information technology and mass communications, education and science, tourism, culture, health and environmental protection.

The delegations of Uzbekistan and Russia discussed the implementation of national projects.

Over the past two years, Russian-Uzbek relations have reached a qualitatively new level. This was stated by Maxim Oreshkin

“This is clearly seen in the figures of mutual trade, an increase here was 20%. This is one of the highest rates among all CIS countries. But at the same time, it is obvious that the 4.5 billion dollars that we now have is the starting position. In a number of areas, we have where to develop together,” he said.

Maxim Oreshkin said that the commission had worked through several documents that are planned to be submitted to the meeting of the prime ministers of the two countries. “This is a road map in the field of agriculture, protocols between our customs authorities - we could not solve this issue for a long time, and last year all the necessary agreements were reached, now we have a finalizing stage,” the minister said.

In 2018, exports of Russian goods to Uzbekistan increased by 26.5% (to US$3.3 billion), imports by 3.6% (to US$1.06 billion). This year is expected to maintain positive momentum.