The President of Uzbekistan has put forward important initiatives to further deepen regional cooperation between Central Asia and the European Union

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President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev took part in the second meeting of the leaders of Central Asia and the European Union, held in Cholpon-Ata.

The event, chaired by President of the Kyrgyz Republic Sadyr Zhaparov, was also attended by President of the European Council Charles Michel, President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, President of the Republic of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon and Deputy Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers of Turkmenistan Nurmukhammad Amannepesov.

In accordance with the agenda, issues of further development of mutually beneficial cooperation between the Central Asian countries and the European Union, as well as topical international and regional problems were discussed.

In his speech, the Head of Uzbekistan noted that in the short period after the first meeting of the leaders in Astana, a lot of work has been done to develop a constructive political dialogue and a multifaceted partnership.

In particular, a high-level Conference on Interregional Interconnectedness was held, at which special attention was paid to the promotion of projects in the fields of digitalization, transport communications, energy and water resources management, including within the framework of the European strategy "Global Gateway".

A number of important regional projects have been launched in the field of vocational education and a sustainable energy system in Central Asia.

The Civil Society Forum, the Second Economic Forum and the annual meeting of the Board of Governors of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development were effectively held.

"These events have once again shown positive, qualitative changes in the dialogue with our European partners," the President stressed.

It was emphasized that today Central Asia is a center of attraction and a space of new economic opportunities for leading European companies and banks.

"We are already talking about a broad investment and technological partnership aimed at creating modern industrial capacities, introducing green energy, developing smart agriculture, and forming an extensive transport and logistics infrastructure," the head of state noted.

Touching upon Uzbekistan's cooperation with the EU countries, the President of our country pointed to a noticeable intensification of contacts at all levels. In particular, meetings were held
with the leaders of France, Germany, Hungary and the Czech Republic. Embassies have been opened in Budapest and Stockholm. An official visit to Italy will take place in the near future.

The trade turnover with the EU countries thanks to the "GSP+" regime has increased by almost 70 percent since the beginning of the year. The portfolio of promising projects for the creation of high-tech industries and new jobs with leading European companies and banks exceeded 20 billion euros.

In the humanitarian sphere, two unique projects were carried out in partnership with the Louvre and the New Museum of Berlin, where for the first time the richest cultural and historical heritage of our region was presented on a large scale.

As the President of Uzbekistan stressed, despite the difficult geopolitical situation and negative trends in the global economy, the Central Asian countries are showing steady growth.

In this regard, the importance of further support by European partners of national development programs and the strategy of irreversible reforms was noted.

Taking into account the agenda of the summit, the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan highlighted priority areas of mutually beneficial cooperation.

In order to radically expand trade relations with the European Union, the leader of Uzbekistan noted the interest in creating sustainable trade and logistics chains and effective mechanisms to support mutual supplies, extending the validity of the GSP+ trade regime with the extension of this regime to the countries of the region.

At the same time, it is pointed out that there is no noticeable progress on a number of issues, for the solution of which it is proposed to develop a comprehensive program to support exporting and importing enterprises of the countries of the region.

It was stressed that this will also be facilitated by the early completion of the process of adopting an Agreement on expanded Partnership and cooperation between Uzbekistan and the EU.

The key factor of sustainable economic growth is the formation of efficient transport corridors.

In this regard, it is important to combine efforts to develop transport and communication interconnectedness of Central Asia and Europe, primarily through the formation of the so-called Middle Route – the Trans-Caspian Transit Corridor.

– Unfortunately, there is still no coordinated approach to improving the competitiveness of this highway. Today we need tariffs that will be beneficial to businesses that generate the main volumes of cargo traffic," the head of state noted.

Equally important are the expansion of transport, logistics and port infrastructure, improvement of the technical condition of the roadway, as well as the creation of an effective mechanism for using the potential of the Trans-Caspian Corridor through regular meetings of authorized representatives of transport departments.

In the field of investment and technological partnership, the President of Uzbekistan proposed to consider the annual holding of industrial and technological exhibitions within the framework of the Economic Forum "Central Asia - European Union".

Taking into account modern realities, it is also proposed to launch, together with the European Investment Bank, special financial support tools for the creation of production capacities of leading European companies in Central Asian countries.

In the field of digital interconnectedness, an initiative was put forward to develop a joint "Digital Agenda for Central Asia" with the involvement of the "Team Europe" mechanism.

The Head of our state separately focused on countering climate change and increasing the sustainability of ecosystems through the implementation of targeted regional projects using advanced European knowledge and technologies.

"Taking into account the urgency of the issues, we invite the European Union to co-organize the first International Climate Forum, which will be held this autumn within the framework of the Samarkand Solidarity Initiative for the Sake of Common Security and Prosperity," the President suggested.

They also expressed interest in the active participation of partners in the project to create a Central Asian University for the Study of the Environment and Climate Change.

In order to actively use the tourism potential of Central Asia, the head of our state put forward an initiative to jointly develop a program to promote the development of sustainable tourism for the region and present it at the anniversary session of the General Assembly of the World Tourism Organization, which will be held in October this year in Uzbekistan.

Taking into account the importance of investments in youth education, the President proposed to establish partnerships with leading universities of the EU countries and introduce joint educational programs.

The leader of our country also called for the resumption of regular meetings of ministers of Education and rectors of universities, the expansion of support for research and educational projects for the Central Asian region within the framework of the Horizon Europe Program.

As the President stressed, the most important areas of cooperation are strengthening cooperation in the fight against new challenges and threats to security, developing partnership programs in the fight against extremism and radicalism, human trafficking, organized and cybercrime, as well as border protection.

– To this end, we propose to hold an expert conference "Central Asia – the European Union: a new agenda for cooperation in the field of security," the head of state said.

Special attention was paid to the rapid deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan, in connection with which the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan urged partners not to reduce the volume of humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people and expressed readiness to provide for these purposes the capabilities of the logistics hub infrastructure in Termez.

It was also proposed to continue regular consultations of the Special Representatives for Afghanistan to develop common approaches to solving topical issues of resolving the situation and peaceful development of this country.

At the end of his speech, the Head of state noted the expediency of developing and adopting a separate "roadmap" following the meeting.

The President of Uzbekistan also expressed gratitude for the support of the initiative to hold the first official summit in the "Central Asia– EU" format in Uzbekistan next year.

Following the meeting of the heads of state, a joint press communique was adopted.