Statement for the Press of the Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Uzbekistan Vladimir Norov

Tashkent, August 2, 2022

Distinguished representatives of the mass media!

We have just successfully concluded the first trilateral format meeting “Uzbekistan-Azerbaijan-Türkiye”.

We commend our Azerbaijani colleagues for the initiative to create such a format of cooperation, and our Turkiye partners for supporting this.

The cultural and historical closeness, the centuries-old ties, founded on common national traditions, customs, language, culture and religion bind together our countries.

Due to the political will of the Presidents, and the course set by the heads of our states, today Uzbekistan’s relations with Azerbaijan and Türkiye are at their highest level in the history of cooperation.

The official visit of Türkiye’s President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in March of this year, and the state visit of Azerbaijan's President, Ilham Aliyev, in June of this year to Uzbekistan, have ushered in a new era of strategic partnership, providing a powerful momentum for expanding bilateral ties in all areas and consolidating relations founded on mutual trust, respect, and support.

Today’s meeting is the logical continuation of the high-level talks and a completely new cooperation format for the three strategic and spiritually close states-partners, which provides a unique opportunity for the comprehensive discussion of the topical issues in regional and international politics.

Today, emphasizing the importance of further consolidating interconnectedness, including through the development of transport links and information and communication infrastructures, we have reaffirmed each state's strong and unconditional support for sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability of internationally recognized borders.

The willingness has been expressed to continue the coordination of efforts within the international institutions, of which Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Türkiye are members.

We have discussed with colleagues the preparation for the First Summit of the Organization of Turkic States, which shall be held in November this year, in Uzbekistan.

An agreement has been reached to jointly ensure the high efficiency of this event, which shall establish a solid foundation for further enhancing the practical cooperation between the Turkic Speaking States.

We have agreed on the importance of continuing the efforts of the international community for the peaceful recovery of Afghanistan, creating inclusive government with the central coordinating role of the UN, in the interests of all the Afghan people.

Such position was expressed by all participants of the International Conference “Afghanistan: Security and Economic Development”, which just recently has been successfully completed in Tashkent.

We are committed to working together in order to realize the potential of cooperation in economy, trade, investments, tourism and transport, including all sorts of transport and transit communications.

Delegations have agreed to deepen the practical interaction in industrial cooperation, digital economics and trade.

For this purpose, it is planned to actively use all possibilities of the Baku–Tbilisi – Akhalkalaki – Kars railway, including the international ports of Türkiye and Azerbaijan, as well as the international transport corridors “North-South” and “East-West”.

The same time the Parties emphasize the importance of Uzbekistan’s initiative on construction of the strategic railway line “Termez – Mazari-Sharif-Kabul-Peshawar” and express support to the “Uzbekistan-Kyrgyzstan-China” railway construction project.

In general, the first meeting in Tashkent between the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Economy and Transport of our countries has confirmed the importance of working together and focusing on achieving practical results to ensure the sustainable development of our countries.

As an outcome, we have signed an important document - the Tashkent Declaration, which defines the main priorities for the near future.

Our subsequent meetings in this format shall be more fruitful and contribute to the even greater rapprochement between our friendly countries.

Thank you for your attention.

Official website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Uzbekistan