Ambassador of Uzbekistan Afzal Artikov handed over credentials to President of Latvia Andris Bērziņš.

During negotiations, Andris Bērziņš underlined that Uzbekistan is reliable partner of Latvia in Central Asian region and expressed interest of Latvia in expanding political, especially inter-parliamentary, and economic cooperation with Uzbekistan.

Latvian President also highly rated successful cooperation of two states in transport sector. He added that Uzbekistan and Latvia could deepen economic interaction in other spheres as well.

Andris Bērziņš stated that both nations face common regional safety challenges and noted that Latvia is interested in expanding cooperation in transit of cargo to Afghanistan.

At the meeting, the sides also considered development of relations between European Union and Uzbekistan.

In his turn, Ambassador Afzal Artikov expressed his readiness to made all efforts to continue to develop both bilateral relations between two states and cooperation with Latvia as member of EU and NATO. At this post of Uzbek Ambassador to Latvia, Afzal Artikov replaced Kobiljon Nazarov. Prior to appointment, Afzal Artikov worked as national coordinator of Uzbekistan at the SCO and head of Department on work with SCO and CIS structures at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Uzbekistan.