On May 22, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov held talks with Uzbek Foreign Minister Bakhtiyor Saidov.
The opening speech of the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was published in the press service of the Foreign Ministry of the Russian Federation.
“As for our bilateral relations, we are pleased to state, as our presidents did, that ties are intensively developing in all areas, despite the sanctions restrictions. In 2022, trade grew by 26%, approaching $9 billion. We see a positive trend in trade this year – in January-February, there is an increase of more than 4% compared to the same period in 2022,” Lavrov said.
According to him, today about 12,000 citizens of Uzbekistan study at Russian universities on a gratuitous basis at the expense of the federal and regional budgets. For the next academic year, Uzbek students have been allocated 800 quotas.
“We appreciate the attention given to the Russian language and education in Uzbekistan. You have 14 branches of Russian higher educational institutions,” he said.
Lavrov also recalled that, in accordance with the updated Constitution, Shavkat Mirziyoyev issued a decree on early presidential elections on July 9 this year.
“We are convinced that the preparation and conduct of the election campaign will be held at a high organizational level. For our part, we will create all conditions so that Uzbek citizens living in the Russian Federation, labor migrants and your other compatriots have every opportunity to express their free will. In this regard, we have close cooperation with your embassy and with other diplomatic institutions of Uzbekistan in the Russian Federation. We will do our best to make this event a success,” he concluded.
The press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Uzbekistan forwarded a message from the Telegram channel of the Foreign Minister.
“We had a warm and fruitful meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov today in Moscow. We emphasized the unprecedented dynamics of mutually beneficial partnership, and also outlined a number of areas and promising areas for further enrichment of our ties,” Saidov concluded.
