Presidents of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Belarus Alexander Lukashenko held talks today at the Independence Palace in Minsk, the Uzbek President’s press service reported.
Shavkat Mirziyoyev noted that expanding partnership with Belarus is one of the priorities for Uzbekistan. “We have created a good base for mutual exchanges. At all levels, there is a mutual desire to cooperate. Today it’s important for us to analyze what has been achieved and to jointly determine growth points where we can successfully work for the future,” he stressed.
He assured that in the near future the cooperation roadmap between the two countries will be updated, it will fix specific instructions for resolving the problematic issues that were discussed during the visit, Belta.by news agency reported.
Shavkat Mirziyoyev called maintaining and increasing the trade growth trend as the priority for cooperation in the near future. Countries are interested in creating joint in agriculture and the textile clusters to enter third markets, the agency notes.
“Over the past two years, we have completely reversed our ties, and, in fact, we resurrected them. And during this time we have accomplished more than in all the previous 25 years,” the Belarusian leader said.
He noted that the bilateral trade turnover does not tap the real potential at all, and it is important to consistently increase it.
“Your initiative [to interconnect the provinces] in cooperation is the “crown” of this visit,” Alexander Lukashenko emphasized. The fact that the governors of the provinces have concluded loads of cooperation agreements is very important. Our business is to open the road, and we opened it, ”he added.
The two leaders also discussed the ways to expand cooperation within the framework of the Eurasian Economic Union, industrial cooperation, technology exchange. “We can offer huge domestic market, as well as the shortest way to the extremely promising Afghanistan market,” said Shavkat Mirziyoyev. “By joining forces, Belarus and Uzbekistan could make a worthy contribution to the restoration of this long-suffering country.”
