As reported earlier, President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov has arrived in Moscow on 14 April within official visit to the Russian Federation on the invitation of President Vladimir Putin.

Welcoming the Uzbek leader Islam Karimov, Russian President Vladimir Putin said: “We are very happy to see you in Moscow. Thank you for accepting invitation to visit Russia. Actually, we are in regular close personal contact. You know, we considers Uzbekistan as key partner in the region.”

“We are happy that Russia keeps, as earlier, status of the first trade-economic partner of Uzbekistan. But, share of Uzbekistan in trade of the Russian Federation is increasing regularly. I should say that trade turnover between two countries rose by 20% in the first quarter of 2013,” he said.

“I think that we can rehabilitate some losses of last year and even previous years – there were some losses. But now the revival started. It is very pleasant,” Russian President stated.

He said that Russian companies actively work in Uzbekistan and several hundred of Uzbek firms (400 companies) operate in Russia. He stated that the cooperation is very solid.

“We are actively cooperate within various international organization, where we regularly take into account interest of each other and support each other. I want to express gratitude to the your Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other colleagues,” he said.

According to the press service of Kremlin, Vladimir Putin and Islam Karimov considered issues of bilateral Russian-Uzbek cooperation, as well as situation in international political arena.

Afterwards, the negotiations continued with participation of delegations of Russia and Uzbekistan.