On October 26, 2018, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Uzbekistan hosted a meeting with the delegation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Turkey led by the Director General for Bilateral Cooperation with Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia Şefik Vural Altay.

Issues related to implementation of the agreements reached during the state visits of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev to Turkey in October 2017 and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Uzbekistan in April-May this year, and subsequent high-level bilateral contacts were discussed.

It was emphasized that the historically established strong ties between the two countries and people, the mutual desire to expanding cooperation at the current stage is an important prerequisite for further developing Uzbekistan – Turkey strategic partnership.

The parties also discussed the schedule and agenda of the forthcoming joint activities.

Special attention was paid to cooperation in trade-economic, investment and transport-communication sectors, where positive experience of mutually beneficial cooperation is jointly accumulated. In particular, the parties noted with satisfaction the dynamic growth of mutual trade turnover, which in January-September 2018 exceeded 1.52 billion USD, which is 40% more than the figure for the same period of the last year. At the same time, the existence of reserves and new opportunities for building up cooperation in these areas was confirmed.

The sides exchanged views on implementation of joint cultural and humanitarian projects.

International and regional issues, including prospects for peace process in Afghanistan were also considered at the meeting.

On the same day, a regular round of Uzbekistan – Turkey inter-MFA political consultations was held.

Ambassador of Turkey Ahmet Bashar Shen attended the negotiations.