The main events of the visit of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev to China commenced today on the morning of April 25 with a meeting with President of the PRC Xi Jinping.

The Chinese leader warmly welcomed Shavkat Mirziyoyev to the PRC to attend the second Belt and Road. He emphasized that China highly valued the level of cooperation with Uzbekistan and was firmly committed to further deepening the comprehensive strategic partnership ties between the two countries.

Shavkat Mirziyoyev expressed gratitude for the invitation to the forum, noting that this event was important for the development of both bilateral and regional cooperation.

He congratulated Xi Jinping and the entire Chinese people on the upcoming significant date - the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.

Uzbekistan and China are comprehensive strategic partners. Tashkent supports Beijing’s One China policy, its fight against terrorism, extremism and separatism. The PRC welcomes Uzbekistan’s reform efforts and regional policies. The two countries actively cooperate in the framework of international organizations.

China is Uzbekistan’s largest trade, economic and investment partners. The two-way trade is consistently growing, surpassing US$ 6.4 billion last year, and grew by 50 percent in Q1 to the last year.

The volume of Chinese investments and loans in the Uzbek economy topped US$ 8 billion. Over US$ 4.5 billion worth of projects in line with the deals reached at the state visit to the PRC in May 2017.

The two leaders also discussed the ways to further expand and diversify trade, expressed mutual interest to elevate the bilateral trade volume to 10 billion dollars in the coming years. Special attention was paid to the prospects of strengthening cooperation in drawing investments, innovations and technologies into the economy of Uzbekistan, developing new projects, and developing the transit and transport and communication potential of the region.

Mirziyoyev stressed that Uzbekistan fully supports the Belt and Road initiative and was ready to make a practical contribution to its full-scale implementation.

The Chairman of the People's Republic of China expressed confidence that the participation and initiatives of Tashkent in the project will contribute to the comprehensive deepening of China’s mutually beneficial cooperation with Uzbekistan and Central Asia as a whole.

In conclusion, Shavkat Mirziyoyev invited Xi Jinping to visit Uzbekistan on a state visit.