To His Excellency Uzbek President Islom Karimov

Your Excellency,

I am filled with the feeling of joy and satisfaction that despite the tight schedule of your participation in the inauguration of the 17th [South] Korean president, Lee Myung-bak, you found time to receive my colleagues and me, who are among sincere friends of Uzbekistan.

Taking this opportunity, let me express sincere gratitude for honour and trust given to us to meet Your Excellency and hear your opinion regarding the ways of further deepening friendly relations between Korea and Uzbekistan.

Every time I meet you, I am surprised by the ability of Your Excellency to reveal the gist of the most complicated phenomena in politics and economy and to clearly identify prospects for and trends of the development of the situation for years to come. I am ready to once again repeat what I said that the people of Uzbekistan, which is led by this wise and far-sighted president, will certainly have a happy future.

Your visit to Korea which was short but rich in content to the maximum and fruitful conversation with President Lee Myung-bak give all reasons to think that from now on Korea and Uzbekistan embark on a new and higher level of cooperation.

My colleagues and I are firmly convinced that after the election of the new Korean president, brighter horizons and opportunities are opening to expand strategic partnership and friendship which is involving more and more spheres of mutual interests and mutually beneficial projects.

The pledge of this is not only surprising similarity of natures of the Korean and Uzbek leaders and warm and friendly relations between them, but also closeness of their political programmes aimed at accelerating the economic development of their countries and improving living standards of their countries.

In conclusion, let me wish Your Excellency sound health and success in achieving these noble goals.

Sincerely,

Lee Man-sup, the former speaker of the South Korean National Assembly and holder of the Dostlik [Friendship] award