BAKU, Azerbaijan, Nov. 12
By Fakhri Vakilov - Trend:
European Union and Uzbekistan plan to sign an agreement on enhanced partnership and cooperation in 2020, as was stated by Uzbekistan’s Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov at a meeting of the EU-Uzbekistan Cooperation Council in Brussels Trend reports citing Uzbek media.
It is possible that the document will be signed during Uzbekistan’s President Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s possible visit to Brussels.
"We are working on the preparation of a new agreement on expanded partnership and cooperation, and we hope to be able to sign this agreement along with other important projects during the upcoming visit of our president, we hope next year in Brussels," Kamilov said.
For his part, the representative of the Finnish presidency of the EU Council, Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said that negotiations on the new agreement "are going well, at a fast pace."
According to him, three rounds of consultations have already passed; the fourth will start in December.
"We hope to be able to complete negotiations in 2020, however some work still remains," he said.
The deputy chairman of Senate of Uzbekistan’s Parliament Sadyk Safayev spoke about the signing of a new agreement earlier.
The Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement will replace the current partnership and cooperation agreement, which has been in force since 1999.
The first round of negotiations on the new document took place in February 2019 in Tashkent, the second in June in Brussels, the third in September and again in Uzbekistan’s capital.
The new agreement provides for more advanced economic, political and cultural relations with the European Union.
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