Uzbekistan foreign minister to visit India in January
Abdulaziz Kamilov is one of the speakers at the Raisina Dialogue and he is expected to meet external affairs minister S Jaishankar during his visit.
India and Uzbekistan will review their relations, including trade and security cooperation, when foreign minister Abdulaziz Kamilov visits New Delhi next month to participate in the Raisina Dialogue, Uzbek ambassador Farhod Arziev said on Friday.
Kamilov is one of the speakers at the Raisina Dialogue and he is expected to meet external affairs minister S Jaishankar during his visit. This will be the first contact between the top leadership of the two countries following Uzbekistan’s parliamentary elections on December 22.
According to preliminary results, the Liberal Democratic Party won 43 seats in the 150-member lower chamber of the Parliament. A total of 825 observers, including 11 Indians, were invited by Uzbek authorities.
Besides trade and security cooperation, Uzbekistan is looking at bolstering cooperation in tourism since India is among the top countries whose nationals visit the Central Asian nation, Arziev said.
Uzbekistan has emerged as one of India’s key security partners in Central Asia and the two sides signed an agreement on cooperation to counter terrorism and organised crime during Uzbek home minister Pulat Bobojonov’s visit to New Delhi in November. The two sides also discussed the capacity-building and training of Uzbek personnel in Indian institutions.
The two countries also signed three agreements on cooperation in military medicine and cooperation between military training institutes during defence minister Rajnath Singh’s visit to Tashkent last month. India also offered a concessional line of credit worth $40 million to Uzbekistan for procuring goods.
India also sees Uzbekistan among the countries that play a crucial role in ensuring security and stability in war-torn Afghanistan. On the other hand, Uzbekistan has backed India’s development of Chabahar port in Iran and the country’s membership of the Ashgabat Agreement for a transport corridor to Oman to boost connectivity options.
Uzbekistan will also be the partner country at the 2020 Surajkund Mela, with more than 20 Uzbek handicrafts organisations expected to participate in the event.