Uzbek President Islam Karimov said at the meeting that the Uzbek-Russian relations are developing in line with allied relations. He said Uzbekistan highly values wide-scale cooperation with Russia. Uzbek leader said the current meeting is good opportunity to exchange opinion on issues of bilateral collaboration and other issues of mutual interest.

Uzbekistan and Russia signed the agreement on strategic partnership in 2004 and a year later the sides inked the agreement on allied relations.

In his turn, Vladimir Putin said Russia considers Uzbekistan as its important strategic partner in the Central Asian region.

During the meeting, the sides exchanged opinion on trade-economic, scientific-technical, investment, humanitarian and political cooperation between Uzbekistan and Russia. The sides also discussed regional and international issues of mutual interest.