Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Investments and Foreign Trade of the Republic of Uzbekistan Sardor Umurzakov met with Chief Foreign Policy Advisor to the President of the European Council Simon Mordue in Brussels.

The current state and prospects for deepening the multifaceted partnership between Uzbekistan and the EU were on the agenda of the meeting. The positive dynamics of the development of cooperation in all priority areas was noted, as well as the regular nature of bilateral contacts at the level of Heads of State, Governments and key ministries and departments.

The results of the 18th meeting of the Uzbekistan-EU Cooperation Committee held earlier on the day in Brussels were positively assessed, during which the parties identified further joint steps to expand mutually beneficial partnership in promising areas, with a special emphasis on deepening investment, trade and economic cooperation.

In this context, a significant increase in mutual trade indicators was noted: in the first five months of this year, the trade turnover between Uzbekistan and the EU countries increased by 22 percent, while exports from Uzbekistan to the EU increased by 86 percent. Among the categories of goods that showed the greatest growth were chemical industry products (a sixfold increase), textiles (a 90% increase) and food products (65% increase). This was largely achieved thanks to the EU's benficiary status of the Generalized System of Preferences Plus "GSP+", which Uzbekistan received in 2021. The parties discussed the results of the visit of the EU monitoring mission to Uzbekistan within the framework of the GSP+ system and outlined further steps to ensure compliance with the requirements of all 27 international conventions ratified by the country as a beneficiary of this system and further cooperation on the effective use of its advantages in practice.

The parties welcomed the completion of negotiations on the draft Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (EPCA) between the Republic of Uzbekistan and the EU as well as its initialing, which took place shortly before the meeting. It was stressed that the signing of the Agreement will create fundamentally new, broader opportunities for deepening bilateral cooperation in a wide range of areas, including foreign policy, security, sectoral cooperation, investment and trade.

Touching upon the topic of accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Uzbek side expressed gratitude for the EU's support in organizing and holding the 5th meeting of the Working Group on Uzbekistan's Accession to the WTO. Further steps for cooperation in this area were outlined.

During the dialogue, issues of organizing and holding a number of joint events were also discussed, including the EU–Central Asia Summit, the EU–Central Asia Ministerial Conference on Connectivity as well as the Tourism Forum.

Following the meeting, an agreement was reached to intensify cooperation on elaborating common issues in the context of the areas of cooperation considered