Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- A delegation of Uzbekistan headed by Chairwoman of the Senate of the Oliy Majlis Tanzila Narbayeva paid a working visit to the capital of the French Republic, Paris. During the visit, the President of the Senate met with the President of the Senate of France, Gerard Larcher.

It should be noted that today relations between Uzbekistan and France are characterized by a high level of political and diplomatic cooperation, the presence of significant potential for mutually beneficial cooperation and cultural and humanitarian exchange.

France is one of the most important trade partners of Uzbekistan in Europe, and the level of trade and economic cooperation is steadily growing. At the same time, inter-parliamentary ties between our countries are developing dynamically.

During the meeting, issues of further development of bilateral relations, including the strengthening of inter-parliamentary cooperation, were discussed.

The President of the French Senate, Gerard Larcher, noted with satisfaction the process of cardinal reforms currently taking place in our country, recognizing that the work carried out in recent years to transition Uzbekistan to a real market economy and open it to the world is more significant than the work done over all the years of independence.

Emphasizing that France’s interest in Uzbekistan is very great, Gerard Larcher noted that “Uzbekistan is a strong state with the largest population in the region – the beating heart of Central Asia. Especially in the conditions of abstraction and unrest observed in the world today, we consider your country to be the center of security and peace in the region.”

It should be noted that today in both chambers of the Oliy Majlis of the Republic of Uzbekistan groups for cooperation with the French Parliament have been created. The France-Central Asia inter-parliamentary group functions in the French Senate, and the France-Uzbekistan friendship group operates in the National Assembly, which is the lower house of the French parliament.

In this regard, T. Narbayeva emphasized that it is important to effectively use the potential of cooperation groups, it is necessary that the foundations of inter-parliamentary cooperation between our countries be built on the principles of lawmaking, strong parliamentary control and regional representation. At the same time, she emphasized that the establishment of strong links between the parliamentary committees responsible for related issues would ensure the practical effectiveness of this dialogue mechanism.

The parties unanimously recognized that a bicameral parliament is an important structural condition for democratic development, and stressed the need for effective use of the mechanisms of representative democracy of the upper chambers in the development of inter-parliamentary relations between our states.

At the end of the conversation, an agreement was reached on establishing relations between the local authorities of France and Uzbekistan, exchanging experience in the field of lawmaking, implementing joint measures to achieve the SDGs, as well as establishing constructive cooperation in such areas as green economy, combating corruption, ensuring gender equality.