News & Events in Belarus

Lukashenko: Belarus, Uzbekistan remain committed to ambitious goals

MINSK, 11 April (BelTA) - Belarus and Uzbekistan have set ambitious goals and will stay committed to them, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said as he met with Uzbekistan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Bakhtiyor Saidov in Minsk on 11 April, BelTA has learned.

The head of state first thanked Bakhtiyor Saidov for the hospitality he received during the recent official visit to Tashkent, and conveyed his best wishes and gratitude to Uzbekistan leader Shavkat Mirziyoyev.

“We set ambitious plans then - to reach $1 billion in mutual trade. I think we do not have time to retreat, and we do not need to. We are ready to play our role. I hope that Uzbekistan will also make every effort to do it,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.

The president also expressed gratitude to Uzbekistan for supporting Belarus on its way to becoming a member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

“I ask you to pay special attention to the development of joint ventures that we agreed on. Then, we talked about BelAZ and other enterprises. Let us work substantially in this direction. We are interested in this. We have something to offer Uzbekistan. If you want to see some of our enterprises, we will organize a visit to any of them at any time convenient for you so that we can make sure that its products are acceptable for use in Uzbekistan,” the head of state said.

Aleksandr Lukashenko emphasized that Belarus has always been friendly towards Uzbekistan and the people of this country. “You can rest assured that this will always be the case. I often say that we are very similar in our diligence, patriotism and attitude to our states. Let us fulfill the agreements we reached in Tashkent,” the president said.

Bakhtiyor Saidov, in turn, conveyed to Aleksandr Lukashenko the words of greetings from his Uzbek counterpart. “He specifically drew my attention and said: “Give my best wishes to my friend.” The visit you made to Uzbekistan is no doubt a historic one,” the minister said.

According to him, Uzbekistan is ready to raise relations with Belarus to a qualitatively new level across all the areas.

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