Canada Visa Application Center may open in Tashkent

At the meeting, the parties agreed to strengthen cooperation between Uzbekistan and Canada. The Ambassador emphasized Ottawa's commitment to comprehensively building up a political dialogue with Uzbekistan. As a first step, the issue of resuming the practice of holding inter-MFA consultations, which were postponed due to the pandemic, is being considered.

The sides stressed the presence of opportunities for building up trade, economic and investment ties. It was noted that bilateral trade between the countries increased by more than 38% in 2021 compared to 2020. According to Alison LeClaire, Uzbekistan is a promising direction for Canadian business, which plans to take an active part in the privatization processes in the country, creating jobs, and developing green technologies.

Issues of building up contacts in the field of education were also discussed. The parties expressed their readiness to consider opening branches of the leading higher educational institutions of Canada in Uzbekistan.

In order to deepen interaction, the sides agreed to study the issue of opening a Canada Visa Application Center in Tashkent.

During the meeting, an exchange of views took place on issues of international and regional politics. The Canadian side expressed gratitude to Uzbekistan for the feasible humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan, which plays an extremely important role in the socio-economic recovery of the country.