The President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev on December 16, received the UK Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Alan Duncan.

The Head of our State warmly welcoming the guest, expressed his sincere gratitude to the British government for their condolences and support to the Uzbek people in the sorrowful days after the passing of the First President of Uzbekistan, Islam Karimov. The tribute paid to his memory on behalf of the British government during the visit of Alan Duncan to Samarkand has been highly appreciated.

Uzbekistan considers the United Kingdom as a country that plays a significant role in world politics and economy, and Uzbekistan attributes great importance to continuation of the mutually beneficial cooperation in the political, economic, investment, cultural-humanitarian and other areas, and to strengthening of interaction in the international arena, including on the regional security.

In turn, Alan Duncan congratulated President Shavkat Mirziyoyev on his convincing victory in the Presidential elections, stressed that the British side welcomes the reforms program initiated by the President of Uzbekistan and expresse the readiness to work with the new leadership of Uzbekistan on strengthening and further expandign of the multifaceted Uzbek-British dialogue.

The 17 November  23rd meeting of the Uzbek-British Council on Trade and Industry in Tashkent involving over 30 British companies has shown that the recently taken decisions aimed at improving the business environment and expanding role of private sector has caused the interest of the leading British companies to dynamically developing Uzbek market.

The sides underscored that, at present, the intensification of cooperation in trade, economic and investment areas, where there is a huge potential, has become all the more important.

Currently, there are 544 enterprises with British capital operating in various fields of Uzbek economy.

The sides praised the state of cooperation in cultural and humanitarian areas, in particular the activities, the International  Westminster University, the Center for High Technologies with the participation of the University of Cambridge, and the British  Council. The sides confirmed their willingness to intensify cooperation in this area given the growing interest in Uzbekistan to  learning the English language, especially among young people.

 The sides also discussed other issues of the Uzbek-British affairs.