Mikhail Mishustin’s meeting with Prime Minister of Uzbekistan Abdulla Aripov

The meeting took place on the sidelines of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council and the CIS Heads of Government Council meetings.

Excerpt from the transcript:

Mikhail Mishustin: Esteemed Mr Aripov,

We are delighted to meet with you again. Thank you for accepting our invitation to attend the events of the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Eurasian Economic Union in Sochi.

I fondly remember my visit to Uzbekistan and our talks during the meeting of the Joint Commission of the Heads of the Russian and Uzbekistani Governments that took place on 2 December 2022 in beautiful Samarkand.

Please send our best regards to the President of Uzbekistan, esteemed Shavkat Mirziyoyev, from President of Russia Vladimir Putin and myself.

We genuinely value our friendship and partnership with brotherly Uzbekistan. We are interested in elevating our cooperation to a higher level. We noted that our trade and economic cooperation is developing successfully and our mutual trade grew more than 25 percent last year, to 612 billion Russian roubles, or 98 trillion Uzbekistani som. And yet, it could be higher. Of course, we need to boost trade between our countries and I believe we can do it. Especially because between January and April, our trade grew by another 16 percent and exceeded 229 billion roubles, or almost 32 trillion som.

We are interested in promoting a range of projects. In particular, I want to mention our most important strategic project, the nuclear power plant in Uzbekistan to be built with Russian technology. I am confident that cooperation in the peaceful use of the atom will give new impetus to industrial and high-tech cooperation. There are many spin-offs and associated technologies. But you are well informed about this. We would be happy to share the latest experience of our nuclear power experts.

We also noted the significant potential for expanding cooperation in the agriculture industry. The Agroexpress project involving the Russian Export Centre, opens new opportunities to boost mutual trade. The project is focused on high-speed rail shipping of agricultural products between Russia and Uzbekistan.

We welcome Uzbekistan's active involvement in Eurasian integration. Your representatives work in EAEU bodies at all levels. We are certain that cooperation with the EAEU will ensure favourable conditions for the economic growth of brotherly Uzbekistan, boost entrepreneurial activity, and eventually benefit the people of Uzbekistan and Russia alike.

Mr Aripov, we have an extensive agenda today. Over to you.

Abdulla Aripov: Thank you very much, esteemed Mr Mishustin. I am sincerely happy to be meeting with you again.

First of all, I would like to thank you for the traditionally warm welcome and the busy event programme in Sochi.

I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate you, Mr Mishustin, and the entire Russian nation on your upcoming national holiday, Russia Day.

Under the leadership of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev and President Vladimir Putin, Uzbekistan-Russia relations continue to demonstrate dynamic development and have reached their highest level today. Thanks to the political will of our heads of state, we have reached a completely new level of cooperation, overarching strategic partnership and alliance.

I also remember our talks in Samarkand in late 2022 with fondness. The outcome of the third meeting of the joint commission was an obvious indicator of our further effective cooperation and active growth of new points in the bilateral format.

Our trade and economic relations have been developing progressively. We have managed to build a working mechanism to expand and diversify mutual trade.

We consistently carry out the comprehensive programme on expanding industrial cooperation. As you know, we successfully held the 3^rd Innoprom Central Asia International Industrial Fair in Tashkent in April. The event was extremely popular and its popularity grows every year.

We are actively working to build joint industrial parks in Uzbekistan. One successful project is a chemical technopark in Chirchik near Tashkent. In April, we launched another project, a technopark in the Jizzakh Region. Our plan is (we reached agreement with your deputies and top executives at different large companies in the Russian Federation in April) to open more parks in the Navoiy and Bukhara regions.

Transport and logistics are key areas in our cooperation. Despite the current challenges, we have managed to maintain positive growth dynamics in cargo transport between our countries.

We are interested in building new international transit corridors that will allow Uzbekistan and Russia to open new potential sales markets. In this context, we support the development of the North-South international corridor, one of the major transport arteries in the region. We propose building a new multi-modal transport corridor connecting Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.

The direct dialogue between our regions drives our successful cooperation. This year, we have several visits of Uzbek governors to the Russian Federation planned for organising business missions and national exhibitions.

There are many reasons to praise the progress in our cultural and humanitarian contacts. On 21 May, the Russian Seasons in Uzbekistan international cultural project opened at the Alisher Navoiy Academic Theatre.

We successfully cooperate in education. There are 14 branches of Russian universities in Uzbekistan. Some of these Russian universities have foreign branches only in our country.

A modern medical school opened at the branch of the Kazan Federal University in Jizzakh in April.

We are happy that Uzbekistan is becoming one of the most popular tourist destinations for Russian citizens. In 2022, almost 600,000 Russian tourists visited Uzbekistan, which is three times more than in 2021. This result was due to an unprecedented increase in flights between our countries on both sides.

So, Mr Mishustin, I count on your further support and active cooperation and active joint efforts for the purpose of promoting the overarching strategic partnership between Uzbekistan and the Russian Federation.

Once again, I would like to express my personal gratitude for this busy event programme. Today we successfully held meetings of the CIS and EAEU heads of government. As always, the events were organised to a high standard, and we appreciate it. Of course, thank you very much for your hospitality.

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