On April 3, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon met with his Uzbek counterpart Shavkat Mirziyoyev in the Uzbek city of Samarkand on the sidelines of the Central Asia-European Union summit.
The Tajik president’s official website says the meeting discussed the state and prospects of further expansion of the bilateral cooperation between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
The parties reportedly also exchanged views on a number of international and regional issues being of mutual interest.
Emomali Rahmon expressed satisfaction with the pace of the expansion of cooperation in the economic, trade, cultural and humanitarian sectors.
Shavkat Mirziyoyev, for his part, once again recalled his impressions of the events recently held in the city of Khujand, highly appreciating their process and results.
Satisfaction was reportedly expressed with the signing of the Agreement between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan on Allied Relations, and its importance in the development of interstate cooperation was once again emphasized.
Much attention was paid to the issues of expanding cooperation in various industrial sectors, realizing export and investment opportunities, and enlarging ties between regions.
A fruitful discussion was also held on other topics of mutual interest.
Tajikistan and Uzbekistan have accumulated many problems after collapse of the Soviet Union. These problems caused the countries' relations to go into a deep freeze two decades ago, including disputes over water and borders. The two countries had had the worst bilateral relations in Central Asia.
Relations between the countries have become warmer after Shavkat Mirziyoyev came to power in Uzbekistan in 2016. Mirziyoyev has said that improving ties with Central Asian nations is a major priority of Uzbekistan’s foreign policy.
