Uzbekistan, Tashkent, June 6 / Trend D. Azizov /
President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov and President of the People's Republic of China Hu Jintao signed today a Joint declaration on the establishment of strategic partnership between Uzbekistan and China, as well as other important documents aimed at developing bilateral relations in political, economic, trade, investment spheres, Xinhua reported on Wednesday.
The document was signed during the official visit of the Uzbek President to Beijing.
According to Xinhua, talks with leaders of the two states were held today in Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
President Hu Jintao said that the visit of Islam Karimov will become a new vigorous impetus to the development of bilateral relations.
President Karimov, in turn, stressed that favorable cooperative relations based on equality, mutual respect and noninterference in each other's affairs were established in recent years between China and Uzbekistan.
As reported, the Uzbek-Chinese relations are regulated by a solid package of documents, including the agreement on partnership relations of friendship and cooperation, a joint declaration on comprehensive intensification and development of partnership relations of friendship and cooperation.
The mutual trade turnover in 2011 increased by 18.9 percent, compared to 2010 - up to $2.6 billion. At present, China is the third largest trading partner, taking leading positions in the procurement of Uzbek cotton and delivery of communication equipment and reclamation machinery to Uzbekistan. The volume of Chinese investment in Uzbekistan is more than $4 billion.
About 400 enterprises created with Chinese capital operate in the field of energy, transport, communications, engineering, construction, agriculture, finance and other sectors in Uzbekistan.
The intergovernmental committee on cooperation was established between China and Uzbekistan in October 2011 to plan, to coordinate and to intensify the process of Chinese-Uzbek relations in all spheres of bilateral relations.
In March 2012 the first meeting of the subcommittee of this organization on trade and economic issues was held successfully in Tashkent, during which the sides reached consensus on several issues, setting the task of increasing the volume of annual bilateral trade to $5 billion by 2015.