The first tripartite meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Trade, Economy and Transport of Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Turkey took place in Tashkent.
During the meeting, the parties exchanged views were on foreign policy issues and explored opportunities for regional cooperation, efforts aimed at fully realizing the combined power and potential of the three countries in the fields of economy, trade, investments and transport.
Over the past five years, Uzbekistan's trade turnover with Azerbaijan and Turkey has doubled, and by the end of 2021 this figure will reach 3.5 billion dollars.
First Deputy Minister of Investments and Foreign Trade of Uzbekistan, Laziz Qudratov, noted that there were all necessary conditions for doubling the volume of trade between the countries. Uzbekistan has the opportunity to increase the supply of machineries, Uzbek textile products, shoes and food to Azerbaijan and Turkey.
It has been proposed to create a new e-commerce platform to facilitate mutual access to markets. It facilitates communication between entrepreneurs, exporters, importers and allows to sell goods at cheaper prices.
The parties also considered possibilities of implementing joint projects on the development of production cooperation, cooperation in the energy sector and the use of the high transit potential of the three countries. The deepening of interregional cooperation was defined as a priority task, and it was proposed to organize the Uzbekistan-Azerbaijan-Turkey interregional forum and to hold its first meeting in Tashkent.
At the end of the meeting, the Tashkent Declaration was signed, including all the agreements on the forum.