Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 19
By Rashid Shirinov – Trend:
President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev has held a telephone conversation with his Uzbek counterpart Shavkat Mirziyoyev, the official website of Kazakh president stated.
The leaders confirmed the agreement to hold the next Consultative Meeting of the heads of the Central Asian states next year in the capital of Uzbekistan, Tashkent. The presidents also noted the importance of coordinating preparation of a meeting at the level of foreign ministries of the Central Asian states.
During the telephone conversation, Nazarbayev and Mirziyoyev also discussed the current state and prospects of bilateral cooperation, as well as issues of the regional agenda.
First Consultative Meeting of the heads of Central Asian states was held in Astana in March this year. At the 72nd session of the UN General Assembly in September last year, president of Uzbekistan proposed to hold an informal meeting of the Central Asian presidents. Nazarbayev supported Mirziyoyev and offered to meet in the capital of Kazakhstan.
Today, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are strengthening economic cooperation. As many as 16 documents on the implementation of joint projects were signed during the First Kazakhstan-Uzbekistan Interregional Forum, held in Shymkent last week. In particular, agreements were signed on the mutual recognition of visa regimes by the Silk Road states and creation of a joint venture between KTZ Express and Uzavtotranstekhnika Scientific and Production Center. Also, KazTransGas and Uztransgas signed an agreement on the transportation of natural gas through the territory of Uzbekistan.
Trade turnover between the two countries in 2017 increased by 31.2 percent and amounted to $2 billion. Presidents of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan set a task to increase the trade turnover to $5 billion by 2020.
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