The major events of the visit by President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev to China began on the morning of April 25 with a meeting with the PRC President Xi Jinping.

The Chinese leader warmly greeted Shavkat Mirziyoyev and welcomed his visit to the country to attend the second Belt and Way Forum. Xi Jinping underscored that Beijing highly appreciates the level of cooperation with Uzbekistan and is firmly committed to the enhancement of comprehensive strategic partnership relations between the two nations.
 
The head of our state expressed gratefulness for the invitation to the international forum, noting that the event is important for the development of both bilateral and regional cooperation.

Shavkat Mirziyoyev congratulated the President of the PRC and the entire Chinese people on the upcoming significant date – the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.

“Dear President, I am pleased to recall Your participation in the first forum", Xi Jinping said. "In this regard, we see in You one of the founders of the international forum “One Belt, One Way”. The attention paid in Uzbekistan to contribution to the forum is indicative of the high level of relations between two our countries. Numerous agreements have been reached and are steadily implemented. I am convinced the Uzbek-Chinese cooperation has a bright future.”

Uzbekistan and China are comprehensive strategic partners. Tashkent supports Beijing’s foreign policy and the fundamental posture on One China issues, its counteraction of terrorism, extremism and separatism. The PRC welcomes the reforms and the regional policy of Uzbekistan. The two sides actively cooperate in the framework of international organizations.

Owing to regular meetings and the political will of the two countries’ leaders, the Uzbek-Chinese relations of comprehensive strategic partnership have risen to a qualitatively new level. Today, cooperation has been dynamic between our two countries in the fields of politics, economy, trade, industry, finance, agriculture, construction, science, education, culture.

China is one of Uzbekistan’s major trade, economic and investment partners. The bilateral turnover has been growing gradually; it exceeded 6.4 billion US dollars last year, and has increased by 50 percent in the first quarter of this year.

The volume of attracted Chinese investments and loans in our country’s economy has exceeded 8 billion US dollars. In accordance with agreements reached during the state visit to the PRC in May 2017, projects worth more than $ 4.5 billion are being implemented.

At today’s meeting, the two leaders discussed issues related to furthering and diversifying the trade, they expressed shared interest in bringing the volume of bilateral trade to 10 billion dollars in the coming years. Special attention was paid to the prospects of strengthening the cooperation in attracting investments, innovations and technologies into the economy of Uzbekistan, devising new joint cooperation projects across various spheres, and developing the transit and transport-communication potential of the region.

The head of our state stressed that Uzbekistan fully supports the Belt and Road initiative and is ready to make a practical input to its full-scale implementation.

President of the People’s Republic of China, in turn, expressed confidence that the participation and initiatives of Tashkent in the framework of the project will contribute to the comprehensive enhancement of China’s mutually advantageous interaction with Uzbekistan and Central Asia as a whole.

In conclusion, Shavkat Mirziyoyev invited Xi Jinping to pay a state visit to Uzbekistan.