Foreign Minister Bakhtiyor Saidov hosted the Ukrainian Ambassador Mykola Doroshenko on Thursday, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
"We discussed a number of aspects of Uzbek-Ukrainian cooperation, including partnership in the fields of economy and trade," the minister said in his Telegram channel.
The Ukrainian Embassy said that the meeting focused on maintaining the trade between the countries.
“Unfortunately, because of the war, trade experienced a major downfall. The Russian Federation is completely blocking the transit of goods from Ukraine to Uzbekistan and back, the provision of food and services, the embassy stressed. “If not for the war, the two-way trade would have reached $1 billion. But despite the war, [our countries] want to maintain trade ties.”
Earlier the Foreign Minister of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba, in an interview with Central Asian journalists regarding Uzbekistan, noted: “Our relations were severely crippled, in fact, by Russia’s ban on transit from your countries to us and vice versa. This hit the economy hard. But, nevertheless, we tried with all our might to revive these relations both politically and economically.”
“We are in favour of [all agreements] to remain in force, and entering into new deals. We have very good contacts with the Uzbek business, there is a dialogue with the Uzbek government,” Dmytro Kuleba then emphasized.
In November 2022, Deputy Foreign Minister Bakhrom Aloev and Ambassador of Ukraine Nikolay Doroshenko discussed the provision of mutual benefits and preferences to the businesses of the two countries.
