President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev held talks with the President of Belarus Aleksandr Lukashenko on the sidelines of CIS Summit in Sochi and invited him to visit Uzbekistan in 2018.

"I invite you to Uzbekistan in 2018, this must be a historic, landmark visit," Shavkat Mirziyoyev said. He instructed the members of the government to take necessary measures to this end. Shavkat Mirziyoyev added that in February 2018 the Days of Belarusian Culture will also be held in Uzbekistan. This will promote the friendly ties between the peoples of both countries, he sadi.

"Next year I would like to send an ambassador of Uzbekistan (currently the ambassador to Belarus is stationed in Moscow), because in all spheres we feel the complementarity of our economies," he said. It is because since recently bilateral cooperation has significantly intensified, the two countries achieved successes in the trade and economic sphere. 

He noted that the countries have developed a serious roadmap for advancing cooperation and Uzbek companies want to collaborate with Belarussian counterparts in many fields. For example, in Tashkent there is a joint venture - Amkodor which assembles industrial equipment. The Uzbek side is ready to step up cooperation in this area as well. Shavkat Mirziyoyev proposed to create joint ventures for production of textile products, because Uzbekistan is famous for its cotton, he said.

In his opinion, there are prospects for cooperation in the fields of agriculture, IT, medicine. The head of Uzbekistan also touched upon the topic of military-technical cooperation, thanking the Belarusian side for developing cooperation in this field. "We want this cooperation to become strategic and not just for one year," he stressed.

In turn, Aleksandr Lukashenko said that Belarus is ready to develop relations with Uzbekistan as quickly as possible.

He said Belarus intends to deepen cooperation with Uzbekistan in all areas in which both countries are interested. "You can be sure that we will do this quickly, as quickly as the partners in Uzbekistan can handle," Alexander Lukashenko reassured.

He added that Belarus is ready for swift actions in the trade and economic sphere. Aleksandr Lukashenko cited the textile industry as a promising area. "You have cotton, we have technologies, and markets are close, I'm in favor of joint ventures, we can easily agree," the President said.

Before Belarusian-Uzbek ties developed at a slow pace. Everything changed a year ago after his meeting with Shavkat Mirziyoyev in Samarkand, Lukashenko said, during which it was decided to apply maximum efforts to develop bilateral ties. It was a lightning-fast meeting, but it became a historical one. We made some arrangements with you, without signing any documents, appointed the responsible persons- and everything went well, Lukashenko said.