SAMARKAND, 6 December (BelTA) – The political will of the presidents of Uzbekistan and Belarus has helped advance bilateral cooperation to a new level, Uzbekistan's Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov said as he met with Belarus' Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko, BelTA has learned.
The prime ministers of Belarus and Uzbekistan met in Samarkand during the visit of the Belarusian government delegation to Uzbekistan.
“Thanks to the strong political will of our presidents, the Uzbekistan-Belarus multifaceted cooperation has reached a new level. We believe that through joint efforts we will be able to fulfill all the tasks set by the heads of state,” said Abdulla Aripov. He noted that he had previously discussed the bilateral cooperation with the Belarusian prime minister during the Bishkek meeting on 25 October.
“Today's dialogue is a logical continuation of the previous negotiations. Today, the task is to flash out our economic cooperation plans, to ensure the timely implementation of investment projects and trade contracts. It is gratifying to see good dynamics in bilateral trade. In January-October 2023 the bilateral trade grew by more than 20% to exceed $500 million. At the same time, the two countries have everything in place to increase trade manifold by expanding supplies of in-demand products,” Abdulla Aripov said.
He noted that participants of the 10th meeting of the Belarus-Uzbekistan intergovernmental cooperation commission held on 5 December mapped out further cooperation plans. Abdulla Aripov emphasized that it is imperative to implement all agreements in time and in full.
According to him, cooperation prospects between Belarus and Uzbekistan are very bright. A testimony to that is a stable growth in the number of joint ventures. In particular, since 2019, the number of enterprises having Belarusian capital has quadrupled in Uzbekistan.
“We are interested in scaling up industrial cooperation. We believe we should flash out the draft cooperation road map for 2024-2025,” the prime minister of Uzbekistan said.
He added that interregional cooperation plays a meaningful role in bilateral relations. Abdulla Aripov believes that the forum of regions to be held in Belarus will be very instrumental in advancing bilateral cooperation.
The prime minister emphasized that Uzbekistan considers Belarus an important and reliable partner.