Tajik and Uzbek government delegations held talks in an enlarged format on August 17 in Tashkent following the one-on-one meeting between the presidents. A special attention was paid to expansion of trade and economic cooperation between the two countries, according to the Uzbek president’s official website.
It was noted that a free trade regime had been established between the two countries and the joint intergovernmental commission for trade and economic cooperation has functioned since 2002.
Over the first six months of this year, the two-way trade between Uzbekistan and Tajikistan has reportedly risen 35 percent compared to the same period last year and dozens of cooperation agreements totaling more than 300 million U.S. dollars have been concluded between the two countries over the same six-month period.
Speaking at the meeting, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev noted that real potential of bilateral trade between the two countries was at least 1 billion U.S. dollars
The two sides pointed to the necessity of continuing work on developing the mutual trade and diversifying its structure as well as taking joint measures to promote further expansion of cooperation between business communities and border areas of the two countries.
The two sides reportedly reached agreements on speeding up the implementation of projects on assembling agricultural machines, producing building materials, food products, electric appliances, etc.
They also reached the mutually beneficial agreements in the fields of transportation and transit, energy, water consumption, says the Uzbek president’s official website .
The sides also discussed issues related to countering terrorism, extremism, transnational crime and raising efficiency of interaction between the law enforcement authorities of the two countries.
