Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- Since yesterday, ahead of schedule, a year before the expiration of his term of office, Robert Azaved left the post of General Director of the World Trade Organization, Dunyo news agency reported.

“Today, when my term of office is being pumped, my message is this: the multilateral trading system, as its architects conceived, is a fundamental guarantor of peace and prosperity in the world,” Robert Azeved wrote on his Twitter page on his last day. In his opinion, without international cooperation, all countries would be "in a worse position."

In May, the WTO director general announced that he would step down on 31 August. In July, Reuters reported that the WTO would refrain from appointing an interim head.

According to the TASS agency, the procedure for nominating candidates for the post of Director General of the WTO ended on 8 July. By 7 September, they will acquaint members of the WTO General Council with their programs and answer their questions. Then, through consultations within two months, the candidate who enjoys the most support and can be approved by consensus should be selected.

According to the Chinese news agency Xinhua, currently eight candidates for the post of head of the organization have been nominated from Mexico, Nigeria, Egypt, Moldova, the Republic of Korea, Kenya, Great Britain and Saudi Arabia.

On 7 July, after an almost 15-year break, Uzbekistan resumed meetings of the joint working group on joining the World Trade Organization.