The Austrian Federal Minister for European and Foreign Affairs Michael Linhart arrived in Uzbekistan on an official visit yesterday, Dunyo said.
During the visit, the Austrian Foreign Minister will hold official talks in Tashkent at the Ministries of Investment and Foreign Trade and Foreign Affairs.
During the meetings, the parties will review the whole range of multifaceted bilateral cooperation in the political, diplomatic, trade, economic, cultural and humanitarian areas.
the Uzbek-Austrian business forum will also be held in Tashkent as part of the visit, with over 200 officials of ministries, departments and business structures of the two countries expected to attend.
This has been the first visit of the an Austrian Foreign Ministry to Uzbekistan over the past 20 years. Austrian Foreign Minister Benita Ferrero-Waldner last visited Uzbekistan in 2000 as the OSCE Chairman-in-Office.
By joint efforts of the parties, the two-way trade doubled in 2018 and has maintained positive trend over the next years. In addition, the activity of Austrian companies in the Uzbek market has noticeably stepped up.
Today the Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov hosted the Foreign Minister Michael Linhart.
Welcoming the guest, the minister Kamilov stressed that Uzbekistan is interested in developing and strengthening comprehensive cooperation with Austria, both on the bilateral agenda and within the framework of the European Union.
“The parties commended the positive trend in the relations in recent years, which became possible thanks to the commitment of the parties to bringing constructive cooperation to a new level, and expressed their readiness to intensify ties in the political-diplomatic, trade-economic, cultural-humanitarian and other spheres. An agreement was reached on thorough and high-quality preparation for upcoming contacts at various levels and formats”.
The sides exchanged views on the situation in Afghanistan and its impact on regional and international stability and underscored the importance of intensifying and consolidating the efforts of the world community to provide humanitarian assistance to the country in order to prevent a humanitarian crisis.
While, during the meeting, a cooperation program was signed between the Foreign Ministries of Uzbekistan and Austria for 2022-2023.
