Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- On 9 June, Prime Minister of Uzbekistan Abdulla Aripov held a meeting with Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin in Sochi.

“We sincerely value friendship, partnership with fraternal Uzbekistan. Russia is interested in bringing interaction to an even higher level. We note that our trade and economic cooperation is developing successfully, the trade turnover last year increased by more than a quarter - up to 612 billion Russian rubles, or 98 trillion Uzbek soums. But this is not enough. Of course, we need to increase trade between our countries. I'm sure we can do it. Moreover, in January-April, the volume of trade increased by another 16%. Now it has exceeded 229 billion rubles, or almost 32 trillion soums,” the head of the Russian government said.

He noted that Russia is interested in promoting a number of projects. “In particular, I will mention the most important strategic project, this is the construction of a nuclear power plant in Uzbekistan using Russian technologies,” Mishustin added.

“Cooperation in the peaceful atom will, I am sure, give a new impetus to cooperation in industry and high technologies. There are a lot of spins, related technologies. You are well versed in this. We could share with pleasure what our nuclear scientists have today,” he said.

“We also see significant potential in building up cooperation in the agro-industrial complex. And new opportunities for increasing mutual trade are opened by the Agroexpress project, which is being implemented with the participation of the Russian Export Center. It provides for high-speed transportation of agricultural products by rail between Russia and Uzbekistan,” the head of the Russian government noted.

He noted that the Russian Federation welcomes the active participation of Uzbekistan in the Eurasian integration. “Your representatives work in the bodies of the union at all levels. We are convinced that interaction with the EAEU will provide favorable conditions for the growth of the economy of fraternal Uzbekistan, increase entrepreneurial activity and, as a result, will be for the benefit of the citizens of Uzbekistan and the Russian Federation,” Mishustin emphasized.

“Today, under the leadership of the leaders of the two states - respected Shavkat Miromonovich Mirziyoyev and respected Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin - Uzbek-Russian relations continue to demonstrate high dynamics and have reached the highest level. Thanks to the political will of the heads of our states, we have reached a fundamentally new level of cooperation, a comprehensive strategic partnership and allied relations,” said Abdulla Aripov.

The Prime Minister of Uzbekistan noted that the results of the third meeting of the joint commission are an obvious indicator of further effective interaction and the active growth of new outlets in a bilateral format.

“Trade and economic relations are developing dynamically. We managed to establish an effective mechanism for expanding and diversifying our mutual trade,” Aripov said.

“We are consistently implementing a comprehensive program to expand industrial cooperation. As you know, we successfully held the third International Industrial Exhibition “Innoprom. Central Asia". There was a lot of interest in this event. It is increasing from year to year,” he added.

“The creation of joint industrial parks in Uzbekistan is actively developing. The chemical technopark near Tashkent, in the city of Chirchik, is successfully operating. In April, a new project was launched - a technopark in the Jizzakh region. We are planning (just in April we agreed with your deputies and heads of various large enterprises of the Russian Federation) to open the same parks in the Navoi region, Bukhara region,” Abdulla Aripov said.

In his opinion, the key area of cooperation between the two countries is the transport and logistics sector. Despite today's challenges, countries manage to maintain a positive trend in the growth of freight traffic.

Uzbekistan, according to Aripov, is interested in the formation of new international transport corridors that would allow countries to open promising markets. “In this context, we support the development of the international North-South corridor, which is one of the main transport arteries in our region. We propose to jointly form a new multimodal transport corridor Belarus-Russia-Kazakhstan-Uzbekistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan,” Aripov said.

“Direct dialogue between our regions is the driver of our successful cooperation. This year, a number of visits of the heads of Uzbek regions to the Russian Federation are planned with the organization of business missions, national exhibitions,” he said.

“We can only rejoice at the dynamics of the development of our cultural and humanitarian contacts. On 21 May, the international cultural project "Russian Seasons" in Uzbekistan was launched at the Academic Theater named after Alisher Navoi. We successfully cooperate in the field of education. There are 14 branches of Russian universities in Uzbekistan. Some universities of the Russian Federation have branches only with us,” the head of the government of Uzbekistan emphasized.

In April, a modern medical education center was opened in the branch of Kazan Federal University in the city of Jizzakh.

“We are pleased that Uzbekistan is becoming one of the most favorite tourist routes for Russian citizens. So, according to the results of last year, almost 600 thousand Russian tourists visited Uzbekistan, which is three times more than in 2021. This was also facilitated by the increase in flights between our countries. Unprecedentedly, we have increased them on both sides,” Aripov said.