The President of South Korea Moon Jae-in is visiting Uzbekistan on April 18-21 to meet President Shavkat Mirziyoyev for the summit. It is the second summit between the two countries since November 2017. The parties are expected to sign several agreements during the meeting.
It should be noted that the two countries have already reached an agreement on economic issues as Uzbek Deputy Prime Minister Elyor Ganiyev, who visited South Korea last March, met with Deputy Prime Minister of Korea for Economic Affairs Hong Nam-gi.
The meeting held included joint research related to FTA, progress and expansion of Knowledge Sharing Program (KSP), support for the establishment of an agricultural education center and a chemical institute, and support for training plant engineers.
South Korea, in particular, plans to help Korean companies participate more in infrastructure development projects in Uzbekistan.
According to Asia Journalist Association (AJA) Founder President Lee Sang-ki, Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Moon Jae-in have several things in common.
“President Mirziyoyev is a peace-driver of Central Asia and President Moon Jae-in is a peace driver of Northeast Asia. These two presidents are the same in that they became a president as fate. President Mirziyoyev took the office as the former president Karimov passed away suddenly while president Moon got elected after the former president Park Geun-hye was impeached. In addition to it, both countries have shared the same fate of the ethnic Koryeo that has been in touch since 100 years ago,” AJA Founder President said.
In Uzbekistan, there are approximately eighty thousand people who had to leave Korea in order to fight against Japan for independence. Many descendants of them are eager to work in Korea in which their parents and grandparents used to live. Lee Sang-ki expresses hope that the upcoming summit will bring some solutions to this matter.
“Both presidents of Korea and Uzbekistan are those who consider the communication with people as the most important priority. After president Mirziyoyev was inaugurated, he designated the next year as the year of interaction with people as well as improving human rights in an attempt to stay closer to people. President Moon has also communicated with people more than ever since he took the office. Moreover, president Moon developed a stepping stone for the peace of the Northeast Asia as well as for the peace of the world through putting a lot of efforts in talks with North Korea, which had been an obstacle to the peace of the world.
The role that president Moon has been playing and the accomplishment of president Mirziyoyev made have something in common since president Mirziyoyev improved human rights and economy by setting free political prisoners and shutting down civilian inspecting institutions. President Mirzyoyev has played significant role in bringing peace to Central Asia by interacting with its neighbor countries such as Russia, China, Turkey, etc.” Lee Sang-ki added.
It is noteworthy that AJA highly appreciated president Mirziyoyev’s efforts and singled out him as the Man of The Year 2018. The awarding ceremony will take place in late May in Tashkent.
