President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev and President of the United Arab Emirates Sheikh Mohammed Al Nahyan held head-to-head talks and between official delegations at the Qasr al-Shati residence in Abu Dhabi Wednesday.
At the beginning of the meeting, Shavkat Mirziyoyev voiced sincere gratitude to the President of the UAE for the invitation and warm welcome, and congratulated him on the successful holding of the Abu Dhabi Sustainable Development Week.
The two leaders discussed the ways to further deepen the Uzbek-UAE ties of friendship and the multi-sector cooperation, including in political, trade and economic, investment, innovation, cultural and humanitarian and other areas.
The counterparts noted that the peoples of Uzbekistan and the Emirates were firmly connected by historical roots, shared values and traditions, and the sacred religion of Islam.
They President Al Nahyan emphasized that the visit of the Uzbek leader of to the UAE opened a new page in the history of bilateral relations, which have been upgraded to the level of strategic partnership.
They underscored that in recent years the volume of trade and investment, the number of joint ventures had risen many times over, with frequency of direct flights risen, and visa-free introduced.
During the visit, a solid portfolio of new projects was formed with leading Emirati companies, mainly in high-tech industries.
The two leaders also identified 6 key areas of the new model of economic cooperation in such key areas as artificial intelligence, digitalization, green energy, urban development and infrastructure, tourism, and private business and reached an agreement to form separate working groups for each priority vector of interaction.
The parties supported the proposal to declare 2025-2027 "A New Era of Economic Partnership between Uzbekistan and the UAE".
In this context, the key task is to take measures aimed at increasing mutual trade volumes by 10 times by 2030 and bringing the investment portfolio to 50 billion dollars.
Shavkat Mirziyoyev said he looked forward in further strengthening ties between the businesses of the two countries and expanding the investment activities of Emirati companies in Uzbekistan.
He proposed launching a joint program for training highly qualified personnel and conducting scientific research in the field of artificial intelligence in cooperation with the Mohammed bin Zayed University.
During the talks, they touched upon the preparations for upcoming high-level events, including the second summit of the Central Asia - Gulf Cooperation Council dialogue, which will be held this year in Samarkand.
