MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd March, 2021) Uzbek Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov has invited Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to participate in the international conference on the interconnection between Central and South Asia scheduled for July, and expressed support for Russia's efforts aimed at security promotion in the regions.
"We support Russia's involvement, active participation in ensuring security and stability in our region. We are ready to cooperate in this regard. I invited Sergey Viktorovich to take part in July in an international conference that will be devoted to the strengthening of interconnection between Central and South Asia," Kamilov said at a press conference after a meeting with Lavrov.
The minister expressed hope that Afghanistan would also participate in the conference and would enhance cooperation with the regional countries.
"And we hope that Afghanistan will be actively involved in this process. This, in our opinion, will allow us to solve two important tasks. Firstly, to strengthen economic cooperation, the involvement of Afghanistan in economic and regional ties. And second, to promote peace and stability in this region," Kamilov said.
Lavrov added that Russia would do its best to ensure that the conference will be a success.
"We have studied with great interest the details of the Uzbek initiative, the new initiative. I mean this summer's international conference - Central and South Asia, Regional Interconnection, Challenges and Opportunities. Mr. Minister kindly invited me to participate in this event. And we will definitely help to make it successful and lead to practical results," Lavrov said.
Russia and Uzbekistan, both ex-Soviet states, established diplomatic relations in 1992. The volume of bilateral trade between the countries reached $5 billion in 2019, according to the Russian Federal Customs Service. The states actively cooperate in the sphere of defense. In 2016, Russia and Uzbekistan signed an agreement on the development of defense industry cooperation. Furthermore, Moscow and Tashkent cooperate in the sphere of labor migration. According to the Uzbek Ministry of Economic Development and Poverty Reduction, 1,193 million citizens of Uzbekistan worked in Russia at the beginning of 2021.
