Uzbek President Islam Karimov arrived in Saint Petersburg to participate in informal summit of CIS countries. He met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on June 9.

The leaders noted the expending relations between two countries. Cooperation between our countries consistently develops and there is a strong legal basis for them which is the Agreement of Allied Relations signed by presidents Islam Karimov and Vladimir Putin in November, 2005.

The volume of trade turnover between our countries in the past year has increased and reached more than US$3 billion that testifies about successful continuation of cooperation.

Over 450 joint ventures with participation of Russian investors are established in Uzbekistan. Uzbek investments are enclosed in 284 joint ventures functioning in the territories of Russia. Over 80 representations of Russian companies and firms opened in Uzbekistan.

Last year Russian market received more than one million tons of various agricultural products from Uzbekistan, UzA reported.

Our countries have great opportunities to expand relations in fuel and energy sector, metallurgy, communications, tourism and other spheres.

During the meeting Islam Karimov and Vladimir Putin discussed the issues of further developing the relations between two countries.