On July 17, 2017, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Uzbekistan Abdulaziz Kamilov, who arrived in Brussels to attend the next meeting of the Cooperation Council “Uzbekistan-European Union”, met Stefano Manservisi, Director General of the European Commission's Directorate General for International Cooperation and Development (DEVCO), and Helga Schmid, the Secretary General of European External Action Service (EEAS).

As a logical continuation of the meeting, which was held in Tashkent on July 14, the priority directions of further deepening of cooperation between Uzbekistan and the EU were discussed, taking into account the readiness of the parties to strengthen and develop cooperation.

As a result of the negotiations, Abdulaziz Kamilov and Stefano Manservisi signed the Financial Agreement between the Republic of Uzbekistan and the European Union on the implementation of “The Horticulture Development Project”. The Project, which comes into effect from the moment of signing, stipulates the EU allocation of grants in the amount of 21.5 million euros for the modernization and strengthening of the material and technical base of scientific research institutes under the Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources of Uzbekistan.