During the meeting of two presidents, the discussed perspectives of development of cooperation between two states in trade-economic and humanitarian spheres, as well as actual regional issues.

Uzbek President Islam Karimov said: “It is a great pleasure to welcome you to Tashkent. I would like to take this opportunity to express my profound respect for you and the entire Russian nation. I would like to thank you once again for accepting my invitation to pay a visit to Tashkent, Uzbekistan despite a very tight schedule. I am confident that your visit will be fruitful and beneficial to both parties.”

He added: “We view your visit as an extension of Uzbekistani-Russian political consultations, which are held on a regular, systematic basis. Most importantly, we consider this to be a great opportunity to make a critical assessment of all aspects of bilateral relations and exchange views on a wide range of issues that are of mutual interest to both Russia and Uzbekistan. I am certain that this is an excellent opportunity not just to exchange views but also to develop common positions on key, sensitive issues both in our region and beyond it”.

“With regard to the dynamic of Russian-Uzbekistani relations, particularly in the economy, I can say with confidence that the trend has been positive, as evidenced by a 40% growth in trade in 2010. This in itself testifies to the fact that the on-going global economic and financial crisis has not affected the relations between Russia and Uzbekistan in recent years and the intensity of our cooperation remains stable, as confirmed by a critical analysis of the turnover and economic and investment relations,” the Uzbek leader noted.

President of Russia Dmitriy Medvedev, in his turn, said: “Mr Karimov, first of all, I would like to once again thank you for the invitation. Indeed, it did not take us long to organise this visit, which shows that the contacts between our two states are based on trust and close friendship, and we exchange views on a regular basis. We often speak on the telephone on a wide range of subjects, both bilateral and multilateral, and when you extended an invitation to visit Uzbekistan on a short, but hopefully, productive working visit, I accepted it with pleasure.”

“Uzbekistan is our strategic partner and a very close neighbour. We are members of the same associations and participate in various international forums, but most importantly, we are bound by very strong economic and historical relations,” the Russian President stated.

“You have just mentioned the recent increase in trade between our states, which is a truly gratifying fact. I have also noted that, despite the crisis in the global economy, trade between us grew by 35 to 40% last year. We have somewhat different figures, but both Russian and Uzbekistani statistics show very strong growth. This means that our relationship is of great strategic importance for both sides. Russia remains Uzbekistan’s biggest trade partner, and we are very happy about that and would like to develop such contacts further,” Medvedev underlined.

“I hope that during my current working visit to Uzbekistan we will cover a wide range of issues of Russian-Uzbekistani cooperation, both bilateral and multilateral,” Russian President added.