President of Uzbekistan receives the Premier of the State council of China

On November 2, 2007, at the Oksaroy Residence in Tashkent President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov received Premier of the State council of the People’s Republic of China Wen Jiabao.

President has said that this is the first official visit by the Premier of the State council of the People’s Republic of China and the meeting in Tashkent furnishes a good opportunity to exchange views on the relations between the two countries.

Islam Karimov underscored that he highly assesses the current state of the Uzbek-Chinese relations, the pace of development of cooperation, and the fact that both Uzbekistan and China are the active SCO members strengthens the mutual trust.

The mutual trust and respect between the leaders of Uzbekistan and China are important in this process. After the Interstate treaty on partnership relations of friendship and cooperation was signed in 2005 the Uzbek-Chinese relations rose to a higher level and acquired more significance.

Uzbekistan and China enjoy the most favoring regime in economic sphere. In 2006 the volume of trade accounted for nearly 600 million US dollars, and for over the January-August this year – 447 million US dollars.

The agreements signed during the State visit of the President Islam Karimov to Beijing in May 2005 envisages the flow of investment to Uzbekistan’s economy worth 1,5 billion dollars. At the SCO Summit in Tashkent in 2004 China has announced about allocation of credit worth 900 million US dollars to the Organization member-states. Twenty-two projects, which have been elaborated by Uzbekistan, are now under consideration. All this witnesses about the scale of economic cooperation between Uzbekistan and China.

Agreements signed between the two states on cooperation in the struggle against terrorism, separatism and extremism, as well as on interaction and consultations of foreign ministries of both countries serve for further strengthening of mutual trust.

At the Oksaroy talks in Tashkent Wen Jiabao thanked the President for the sincere welcome also saying that China is interested in further expanding the cooperation with Uzbekistan.