The panel discussion “Belarus and Uzbekistan: New Vectors of Interaction” was held at the Belarusian Institute of Strategic Research on June 29th, the reporter of “Minsk-Novosti” news agency informs.
The participants included representatives of Belarusian and Uzbek government bodies and organizations.
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Uzbekistan to Belarus Rakhmatulla Nazarov highlighted that the meeting is being held before the planned official visit of the President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev to Belarus.
“In general, relations between states are developing dynamically, covering almost all areas; there are no problems between countries. Our approaches on many issues are similar. Of course, one of the main directions is the economic one. In 2018, commodity turnover was about $200 million; today we have increased it almost 3.5 times. Last year, according to our statistics, the amount was 960 million. This is not the end point, and the task has been set to increase turnover,” R. Nazarov stated. “We are expecting a high-level visit to Belarus in the near future, then specific data will be announced. Today’s meeting is a good foundation for the development of relations. BISR has a number of partners in Uzbekistan. Regular analytical work and interaction help coordinate positions at the regional and international levels.”
BISR Director Aleh Makarau assessed the level of trust between representatives of Belarus and Uzbekistan as quite high.
“Trust is the most important fuel of expert diplomacy. Formal documents can be signed, but what is most important is openness between representatives of different nations. Today we are talking about the challenges and new points of interaction that await Belarus and Uzbekistan. Almost seven years have passed since the official visit of the President of Uzbekistan to Belarus, and during that time Uzbekistan has changed a lot. We see that the difficulties and problems that troubled this state five years ago have actually been overcome today; a lot of work is being done there, including the one aimed at the entire region. In Belarus, too, a lot happened during this period, we successfully went through many challenges, but the geopolitical positioning has changed very much. Since 2019, from the center of Europe we have become an outpost of Eurasia. Therefore, we have something to discuss, we can achieve a lot together,” A. Makarau highlighted.
Head of the group of the Agency for Strategic Development and Reforms under the President of Uzbekistan Bekzod Kurbanov outlined the vectors of cooperation between the two countries.
“The most important thing today is to expand the partnership between Uzbekistan and Belarus through joint efforts. We carried out an analysis and realised that the results achieved, although significant, were already reached their limits. Therefore, we want to look further and build longer-term and expanded projects. An important step will be to combine the synergies of knowledge and markets. We have markets, you have knowledge, let’s combine them and build more effective projects in the future. We see the successes of Belarus in industry, agriculture, and achievements in pharmaceuticals can be acknowledged separately. There is a market for all this in Uzbekistan, and in fact it is not limited to Uzbekistan. It is generally possible to enter our region through Uzbekistan. We are also interested in Belarusian approaches to science; if we do not cooperate with each other, then other countries and their technological giants can go far ahead. We need to collectively address these risks.”
Project Manager at the Institute of Macroeconomic and Regional Studies under the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Uzbekistan Daria Ilyina emphasised the high interest in the achievements of Belarusian agriculture.
“Our countries have a common orientation towards agriculture, and a lot has already been done for cooperation in this area. Last year, an assembly plant for the production of MTZ tractors was launched in Uzbekistan, this is important and very pleasant for us. Now the internship of students from the Tashkent Institute of Irrigation and Agricultural Mechanisation Engineers is finishing at the plant; they spent a month at the enterprise,” D. Ilyina informed. “We are moving from mutual trade in agricultural products to deep cooperation, to the development of mechanical engineering, and are refocusing on integrating into the production chains of goods with high added value and deep processing. The prospects for cooperation with Belarus are significant. We are very impressed with how your dairy farming is developing; the indicators are very high. We have a population of 38.5 million, which is constantly growing, and there is a demand for these products. If we create joint production facilities, they will be able to enter the markets of all Central Asian countries, including Afghanistan.”
Source: Minsk-Novosti Agency