On May 21, a meeting was held between the General Staff Head of the Uzbekistan’s Armed Forces Pavel Ergashev and the General Staff Head of the Belarusian Armed Forces Oleg Belokonev, the Defense Ministry reported.

At the meeting, the parties discussed the current state of bilateral cooperation in the field of defense and exchanged views on strengthening mutually beneficial relations in this direction.

Major General Ergashev noted that our countries are linked by a common history, established strong traditions of friendship, mutual understanding and respect.

“The state visit of President Alexander Lukashenko to Uzbekistan in September 2018 has been marked as a new historical stage in the development of the Uzbek-Belarusian strategic partnership, which opened a new page in the history of bilateral relations,” Pavel Ergashev said. 

He also expressed the readiness of the Defense Ministry of Uzbekistan to develop all-round cooperation with the Belarusian side, including in the military and military-technical sphere.

In his speech, Major General Oleg Belokonev noted that Uzbekistan is not only a friendly and sunny country for him. “My parents lived in Tashkent, my brother was born here, I also left a piece of myself in this wonderful city. This visit is a natural result of our friendly relations, it is the embodiment of decisions of the defense ministers.”

Also, it was emphasized that in recent years, significant results have been achieved in the development of comprehensive and multifaceted intergovernmental relations.

After the meeting, the guests laid flowers at the Sorrowful Mother monument on the Mustakillik Square.

The delegation of the Republic of Belarus also visited the Academy of the Armed Forces of Uzbekistan, where the guests got acquainted with the tasks and activities of the higher military educational institution, as well as the latest approaches in the field of training military personnel of the command and staff levels. The guests highly appreciated the conditions created for training, retraining and advanced training of military personnel.

It should be recalled that in the period from May 20 to 27 of this year, at the Gurumsaray training camp located in the Namangan region, joint tactical and special exercises “Combat Commonwealth – 2019” are being held for the first time.