Mr. Rivera was one of several conference participants to address the crowd of around one hundred scientists, government officials, and members of the diplomatic corps at the UzExpoCenter.

In his remarks, Mr. Rivera highlighted the history of cooperation between the United States and Uzbekistan on renewable energy, and science more broadly. Over the last three years, he noted, more that seventy representatives of Uzbek scientific institutions have participated in various research activities in the United States. According to Mr. Rivera, these and other exchange programs have allowed Uzbek and American scientists to share knowledge and technology in renewable energy-related fields of study.

Mr. Rivera also pointed to other examples of recent bilateral scientific cooperation: The Department of Agriculture has sponsored bilateral research projects that aim to improve water efficiency in farming while improving harvest yields; The US State Department has funded a small grants program through which a botanic greenhouse in Samarkand was recently renovated. These and other cooperative efforts have “a significant direct benefit towards finding solutions and initiatives that provide sustainable economic growth while promoting scientific research,” Mr. Rivera noted.

Opportunities for continued bilateral scientific cooperation were further enhanced in December of last year when the United States and Uzbekistan signed a Science and Technology Cooperation Agreement. As Mr. Rivera described, the agreement “serves as a legal and institutional framework for scientific cooperation in areas of mutual interest and benefit. The agreement also establishes a framework whereby cooperation and projects can be initiated and carried out by individual scientists without requiring further approvals.”

The Science and Technology Cooperation Agreement has garnered much interest throughout the scientific community, in both the US and Uzbekistan. Furthermore, as a result of the agreement, a number of US federal agencies have expressed their interest in initiating new projects with their Uzbek counterparts, suggesting that we can expect to see a further deepening and expansion of bilateral scientific cooperation.