As earlier reported, UN chief Ban Ki-moon is paying his first official visit to Central Asia. During his visit, he visited Turkmenistan and Kyrgyz Republic. After Uzbekistan, he will tour Tajikistan and Kazakhstan.

Ban Ki-moon visited the Republic of Karakalpakstan, where he saw the effects of ecological deterioration on the Aral Sea, once the world’s fourth-largest lake. In recent decades it has shrunk in size by more than 70 per cent after tributary rivers were diverted for irrigation projects. The salinity of the region’s soil has soared and the area is also heavily polluted.

In the second half of the day, Ban Ki-Moon arrived in the capital of Uzbekistan, Tashkent. During his visit to Uzbekistan, Ban Ki-Moon will hold talks in Uzbekistan with President Islam Karimov and deliver a lecture at the University of World Economy and Diplomacy in Tashkent.