Tashkent, August 23, AZERTAC

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev delivered press statements in Tashkent on August 23.

The President of Uzbekistan made the statement first.

x x x

Then, the President of Azerbaijan made the statement.

Statement by President Ilham Aliyev

- Thank you, dear Shavkat Miromonovich.

Dear friends,

First of all, I would like to once again express my gratitude to you for the invitation, for the hospitality, and for such a sincere attitude toward Azerbaijan and the Azerbaijani people.

As you know, we have the same warm, fraternal feelings toward Uzbekistan and the brotherly people of Uzbekistan. And I think that the results of today's visit once again confirm this. First of all, however, I would like to note once again that this is not my first visit to Tashkent, and every time I come here, I notice rapid development. It is evident in everything — both in major projects and in the details. Tashkent and the whole of Uzbekistan are thriving today. And this is the result of the work of my dear brother Shavkat Miromonovich, whose efforts are aimed at strengthening Uzbekistan's potential, enhancing its position in the international arena, and addressing the most important socio-economic challenges.

When Shavkat Miromonovich took over the leadership of Uzbekistan, the situation was completely different. The citizens of Uzbekistan know this well, and so do we. Therefore, he had to make tremendous efforts to put the country on the path of development, essentially to build the economic foundations for the country's development from scratch, diversify the economy, develop industry and agriculture on a diversified basis, and attract investment into those sectors of the economy that had and continue to have great potential. And today we see a completely different Uzbekistan — Uzbekistan as a highly respected member of the international community, where issues related to industrial development, agriculture, energy and transport infrastructure are being addressed promptly and effectively. Everything that Shavkat Miromonovich spoke about with regard to our bilateral relations primarily concerns what he and his team have accomplished for Uzbekistan.

I have already spoken about this today: without this groundwork, without this potential, it would have been impossible to implement a single joint project. In fact, before Shavkat Miromonovich assumed the leadership of Uzbekistan, there was not a single joint project between our countries. Today, however, we are talking about the goal of reaching $1 billion in trade turnover not as some distant dream, but as something we will probably achieve within a couple of years. And what was discussed today — those mutual investment projects in the sectors that our economies require and need — all this would have been impossible if the two countries had not developed along parallel paths. And this parallel course is now an important factor in broader geopolitics, because, as Shavkat Miromonovich noted, following Azerbaijan's inclusion in the cooperation format of the Central Asian countries — and, incidentally, he played a special role in this matter — the geography of cooperation has expanded.

Central Asia and Azerbaijan today constitute a single geopolitical and geo-economic region, which has enormous potential today, but even greater potential for further growth. The close interaction between our countries, Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan, will largely determine the overall positive development dynamics of this vast region, which I would even call a newly emerging and already sufficiently integrated region.

Each of the projects we discussed today has its own value, and together they create, as Shavkat Miromonovich noted, an unprecedented level of cooperation in our relations. We have covered practically all areas, from energy, transport and investment projects to tourism, cooperation in the mining sector, the automotive industry, agriculture and processing. Even today, at the end of the official bilateral events, when we laid the foundations for new projects or inaugurated new projects, simply listing these projects is enough to see how multifaceted our cooperation is. I also forgot to mention cooperation in the banking sector, with a leading Azerbaijani bank entering the Uzbek market, SOCAR entering Uzbekistan's retail market, while in projects related to the exploration of oil and gas resources, we are already essentially at the final stage and very much hope to begin drilling production wells next year, once, I hope, the exploration drilling and exploration activities yield positive results.

So, today we are already talking about prospects. The fact is that our bilateral relations are now based on a very solid foundation — both spiritual and material. Such a synthesis is not often seen in world politics, but it exists here. And the determination of the governments of both countries to promote development, create better living conditions and pool our efforts is the most important factor in ensuring our success.

And, of course, I would once again like to highlight the special role of President Shavkat Miromonovich Mirziyoyev in attracting investments to Garabagh. Uzbekistan provided the first assistance by building the Mirzo Ulugbek School for 960 students in Fuzuli and investing in a garment manufacturing facility in Khankendi. The first major industrial enterprise was also associated with Uzbekistan. There are further plans for cooperation both in the Garabagh region and in many other regions. It is also noteworthy that today, during events related to the inauguration or groundbreaking of numerous projects — there were, I believe, ten or even more of them — there were also a number of regional projects.

The projects are not limited to Baku and Tashkent, although, of course, the main focus is on these two cities, but they also extend to other regions. The interregional cooperation forum held yesterday is of enormous practical importance. In other words, we are joining forces and creating synergy, as they like to say nowadays. We have a very clear action plan to move forward, and each project is underpinned by concrete substance. If we also add the investment fund, which is already one-third backed by projects, as well as investment projects in Azerbaijan's tourism infrastructure and automotive industry, we are already talking about billions in investment.

Investments are generally made in friendly countries, and in our case, in brotherly countries, and usually in countries where a favorable investment climate exists. And this brings me back to where I started. Shavkat Miromonovich deserves enormous credit for creating, through his reforms, persistence and wisdom, an investment climate in which international financial institutions and major international players now view Uzbekistan as a country at a successful stage of development.

As your friends and brothers, we sincerely welcome this, and I am confident that all the plans you have outlined will be implemented, and that we will work together to bring our countries and peoples even closer.

And in conclusion, I would like to invite you, Shavkat Miromonovich, to visit Azerbaijan on a state visit at a time convenient for you.

Thank you for your attention.