At the Ala Archa State Residence in Bishkek, the President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev and the President of Kyrgyzstan Sadyr Zhaparov held a meeting in a contracted format.

The President of Uzbekistan, expressing gratitude for the invitation and warm welcome, noted that over the past two years, cooperation between Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan has developed most fruitfully.

“Kyrgyzstan is our important strategic partner, closest neighbor and time-tested friend”, Shavkat Mirziyoyev said.

It was emphasized that the parties have managed to bring bilateral relations to a completely new level in the past two years. The completion of the delimitation of the Uzbekistan – Kyrgyzstan border was called a historic event.

Issues of developing bilateral political, trade and economic, investment, transport and communication, water and energy and interregional cooperation were discussed during the talks.

The Leader of Uzbekistan noted with satisfaction that in recent years the volume of bilateral trade has increased sevenfold. Last year alone, trade increased by 30 percent to $1.3 billion.

The governments of the two countries were instructed to work out the issues of further increasing the volume of trade and expanding the range of mutual deliveries.

The issues of implementing new joint investment projects in industry, textile, energy, mining and agricultural sectors were considered.

The potential of the Uzbekistan – Kyrgyzstan Development Fund will be more actively used for these purposes.

The leaders of the two countries also discussed cooperation within regional structures and on international platforms, issues of security and stability in Central Asia, and effective counteractions to modern challenges and threats.

The mutual desire to continue beneficial cooperation within the framework of multilateral structures was confirmed.