The Uzbek Foreign Ministry is considering the issue of opening consular missions in the Russian cities of St. Petersburg, Kazan, Rostov-on-Don, Yekaterinburg, Vladivostok, and also in Kazakhstan's Almaty, the First Deputy Foreign Minister Zhavlon Vakhabov announced at a conference devoted to the implementation of the Uzbekistan's Development Strategy for 2017-2021.
The Deputy Minister admitted to Uzbekistan’s having too few consular missions in the Russian Federation, in particular. He noted that the consular missions are being increased following a large number of complaints (3,000) from Uzbek expatriates sent to the Virtual Reception of the President in foreign missions related affairs. Two-thirds of them concern matters of consular and legal nature. Among them: passport issues; registration of documents, marriage, divorce, and death issues, investigation of criminal cases involving expatriates. In all of these situations a consular missions advises, assists and acts so that the necessary matters are taken care of.
In order to protect the interests of fellow citizens abroad, the Foreign Ministry, in particular, developed a new version of the Consular Statute, which is being currently publicly discussed.
According to Javlon Vakhabov, following changes, a consul may provide financial assistance to Uzbek expatriates who due to objective reasons were left without means of subsistence. The draft expands consular services, including advanced voting, assistance to victims of human trafficking, assistance in emergency situations and to return in case of loss of travel documents, with most services to be available online.
