Khiva, June 22, AZERTAC

President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev has hosted a reception in honor of President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev in the city of Khiva.

The event featured a concert program.

The heads of state listened to the performances of artists and spoke with them.

President Shavkat Mirziyoyev: First of all, our artists showed my friend, my brother Ilham Heydar oglu our beautiful culture, art and their closeness in beautiful Khiva, Uzbekistan. I am very grateful to you, and I felt very proud today that my brother and I spoke the same language and there was no interpreter between us. These artists sang of our culture, history, ancestral roots and unity with deep love, affection and respect, showing that the historical unity and future of these two great nations is truly unshakable. We have been talking and discussing our friendship and relations since yesterday. But today you have shown this in practice through art. I am grateful to you.

It is commendable that we have respected our culture, history, in general, our magom and mugham in recent years. Years will pass, centuries will pass and you will be involved in this culture in the future. Your children, neighbors and friends will always be in touch with this culture. I am pleased to tell my brother Ilham Heydar oglu that artists have shown us a new culture in New Uzbekistan.

President Ilham Aliyev: I understood everything my brother Shavkat Miromonovich has said, there was no need for an interpreter. My state visit ends today. I am very pleased to have visited Tashkent yesterday, Khiva, Urgench and Khorezm today. Yesterday and today, I saw once again how close our peoples are to each other. Our culture, art and, in general, the roots of our peoples are the same. The songs sung in the Azerbaijani language seemed to have been performed by Azerbaijani singers. There is no dialect. What does this indicate? It indicates the unity of our peoples. You are our pride, performers, artists and masters of culture who glorify our Turkic culture.

During the conversation with Shavkat Miromonovich at this table, the President knew the names of every single performer. He knew where they had studied, that someone had studied in Baku or elsewhere, the Minister of Culture, etc. This shows that the President deals with the issues of each artist personally. His love for you is his love for the Uzbek people.

Today I discovered a new Uzbekistan for myself. New Uzbekistan is flourishing in the person of my brother, through you. May the life of the new Uzbekistan be successful and prosperous. Inshallah, all of us - the Uzbek and Azerbaijani peoples - will be together like a fist.

President Shavkat Mirziyoyev: Inshallah.

President Ilham Aliyev: We also have these hats. The Khorezm dialect is very similar to the Azerbaijani language. We call this hat the Bukhara hat.

President Shavkat Mirziyoyev: From the first day, my brother Ilham Heydar oglu and I exchanged views and made decisions on the implementation of many issues, on our unity, solidarity and, most importantly, our peaceful life and prosperity. We have discussed major plans for our future cooperation. I want to tell you that economics and politics are important, but the main value that unites us is culture. I think culture is a strong tool that brings us closer together. We have agreed to make reciprocal visits at least every three months, increase traffic and raise our cultural unity to a new level.

It would be so wonderful to organize a joint concert on the art of mugham and magom based on Fuzuli and Navai poems with the participation of our orchestra during our meeting in Samarkand in November this year. I think that if you prepare for it for a month, you can achieve great results. None of our intentions and actions can be realized without culture, without contacts with culture.

I am grateful to our orchestra, which prepared this concert for my brother in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, in Khiva, in the Khorezm region, in a distant land. Our Minister of Culture organized this orchestra, and I appreciate his service. Thank you.

President Ilham Aliyev: Thank you.

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Then a picture was taken.