The statement said the sides will consider issues of bilateral cooperation and discuss regional issues.

The statement said the issue was considered at the meeting of the newly appointed Kazakh Ambassador Boribay Jeksembin with the Uzbek President Islam Karimov. Kazakh envoy handed over credential to the Uzbek leader on 4 March.

During the meeting, the Uzbek President Islam Karimov underlined the importance of the upcoming visit of the Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev to Uzbekistan.

According to the State Statistics Committee of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan is the fifth largest trade partner, which accounted 6.2% of total trade turnover of the country in 2009.

Trade turnover of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan decreased by 21.1% year-on-year in 2008. Exports of Uzbekistan rose from US$436.4 million in 2008 to US$513.7 million in 2009, while imports shrank from US$1.22 billion to US$793.5 million.