On November 23, 2018, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Uzbekistan Abdulaziz Kamilov met with the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini, in Brussels.

The sides exchanged views on the agenda of the next “Central Asia – European Union” interregional meeting, which will be held in Brussels, discussed priorities of expanding cooperation between Uzbekistan and the European Union.

As it was emphasized, the summit scheduled for 2019 will open a new page in the history of bilateral relations. In this context, the negotiations on the draft Agreement of enhanced partnership and cooperation between Uzbekistan and the European Union, held on November 23, 2018, demonstrate the intention of sides to progressively strengthen and develop cooperation.

It was noted that large-scale reforms carried out in Uzbekistan on liberalization of economy open up great prospects for wider presence of the European business and investment in Uzbekistan’s market, growth of mutual trade. The trade turnover between Uzbekistan and the EU for 9 months of 2018 at the amount of 2.23 billion USD is confirmation of this. This is 17 percent more than in the same period of previous year.

Implementation of Tashkent Declaration adopted on March 27, 2018 at the International Conference on Afghanistan, which was attended by the EU delegation led by Federica Mogherini was also discussed.

Following the negotiations, Federica Mogherini handed over a draft Agreement to Abdulaziz Kamilov on enhanced partnership and cooperation between Uzbekistan and the European Union, which is to replace Agreement on partnership and cooperation between the Republic of Uzbekistan and the European Communities and their member states, of July 1, 1999.