The visit was also aimed at preparing a visit of the Uzbek president to the country this year to lead a delegation to the first meeting of the joint commission for bilateral cooperation between Indonesia and Uzbekistan.

The meeting of the joint commission is aimed at strengthening the foundation of the two countries’ committment to formulating concrete steps to increase bilateral cooperation between the two countries and evaluating cooperation documents that have been signed by the two countries so far.

The two countries’ high-ranking officials would also meet on 10-11 February or ahead of the ministerial meeting of the Indonesia-Uzbekistan Joint Commission on 12 February.

Indonesia will be represented by the director general of Asia Pacific and Africa of the foreign ministry while Uzbekistan by first deputy to the foreign minister dealing with foreign economic relations, trade and investment in the high-ranking official-level meeting.

The meeting of the joint commission would discuss efforts to increase bilateral cooperation between the two countries in the fields of trade, customs, investment, sister-city relationship between Indonesian city of Banda Aceh and Uzbek city of Samarqand, standardization, health, tourism, information, communications, banking, technical cooperation, anti-terrorismm, transportation and energy.

The two countries plan to sign a number of documents for bilateral cooperation such as in the field of customs service and Banda Aceh-Samarqand sister-city relationship.

To increase trade, tourism and investment activities between the two countries the meeting would be followed by a business meeting to be held by the foreign ministry and attended by businessmen from the two countries.

While in Indonesia the Uzbek foreign minister is also scheduled to pay a courtesy call on President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, House Speaker Agung Laksono and the secretary general of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).