Major events within the Uzbek President’s visit took place on April 15 in the Kremlin. Islam Karimov and Vladimir Putin met in a contracted format and discussed the progress and prospects of bilateral cooperation in political, trade-economic, investment, scientific-technological and humanitarian areas.

The two sides exchanged views on pressing issues in regional and international affairs. The subjects included the developments in Afghanistan, the war on terrorism, extremism, drug trafficking, organized crime.

The Presidents of Uzbekistan and Russia addressed also the cooperation issues within the frameworks of international institutions like the United Nations, Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and the Commonwealth of Independent States.

The talks continued in an extended format, where the two parties for the most part addressed economic interaction. It was noted that the trade and economic cooperation constitutes robust bedrock of the Uzbek-Russian relations. Thus, the bilateral trade turnover in 2012 grew by 12.6% to reach US$7.6 billion. In the first quarter of this year, the growth indicator has made up 20%.

To date, some 850 Russian-Uzbek companies are operating in Uzbekistan, while representative offices of more than 100 Russian enterprises are accredited in our country. In excess of 400 companies with Uzbek capital are run in Russia. The Uzbek-Russian partnership has been dynamic in fuel and energy sector, with Russia’s largest hydrocarbon companies working successfully and effectively in Uzbekistan.

During the talks in Moscow, the two sides stressed the importance of intensifying the investment cooperation by setting up joint ventures to produce ready goods, by boosting the bilateral trade, enhancing the interaction in transport and communications.

The trade-economic and investment partnership, interaction in fuel and energy complex and other sectors of economy are addressed within the Intergovernmental Commission on Economic Cooperation between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Uzbekistan. Tashkent hosted the latest, 14th session of the Commission last December.

The progress in the activities of the Commission and plans for the future were discussed during the negotiations.

The two sides exchanged views on cooperation issues in humanitarian sphere, which implies expansion of contacts among institutions and organizations of culture, science, education, sports and tourism. Consolidation of ties between the academies of sciences, scientific and research institutions are also covered in this interaction track.

The talks have produced the Agreement on the Encouragement and Mutual Protection of Investments, the Program for Economic Cooperation for 2013-2017, the Program on Cooperation in Cultural-Humanitarian and Scientific-Technological Spheres for 2013-2015. In addition, among documents approved during the visit are those on interaction between institutions of environmental protection, customs and tax services.

At the meeting with mass media representatives, Islam Karimov and Vladimir Putin noted that the negotiations proceeded in the spirit of openness and mutual confidence, that the positions and views of the two sides across issues addressed are similar and akin, and that the documents signed will serve to bolster the bilateral relations in the interests of our two nations.

This ended the visit by President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov to Russia. The talks that advanced in a favorable business atmosphere and the documents inked afford us every reason to state that Uzbekistan and Russia are progressing on the path of enhancing the multifaceted cooperation, of enriching their bilateral relationships with fresh material substance.