Uzbek President Islam Karimov and Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov exchanged views with respect to the regional security and military cooperation between the two nations.

"President Karimov received the Russian Defense Minister at his residence on Monday night," a spokesman for the Uzbek president’s press service told Interfax-AVN on Tuesday.

In his opening remarks at the meeting, President Karimov noted that the status and scale of military cooperation with Russia now give grounds to say confidently that the relations between the militaries of the two nations are those of allies.

"We believe the visit of the Russian Defense Minister to the country is yet another prove to that effect, which will provide a powerful impetus to the development of military cooperation between the nations that has been growing steadily following the 2005 alliance agreement," the press service quoted President Karimov as saying.

Uzbekistan and Russia have held two tactical antiterrorism exercise jointly, which was also stressed during the meeting.

Speaking for his part Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov expressed his pleasure with such a sincere and hospitable reception, and added that Russia has been taking cooperation with Uzbekistan’s military very seriously and is ready to maintain and continue all joint programs and projects in the domain.

These programs are reflected in the joint action plan for 2008, signed between the defense ministers of the two nations during their meeting on Monday.