The presidential press secretary, Sherzod Asadov, called the official visit to Italy “a practical expression of the active and pragmatic foreign policy of the president”.
“This visit is official in terms of classification and historical in terms of significance. The reason is that the leaders of the two countries are meeting at the highest level for the first time since 2000. The gap that existed in the relations between the two countries until 2016 has been filled in recent years in all directions, in particular with the Italian state, in general, with the European Union countries, both in terms of quality and results.
And the logical continuation of these efforts is the main result of today’s visit, which is the raising of Uzbek-Italian relations to a strategic level. Italy is the first strategic partner of Uzbekistan in Western Europe.
It is worth noting the words of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni during the conversation with our president: “Because we believe in your reforms and policies, we decided to raise our cooperation to a strategic level”.
In general, high dynamics in all areas of bilateral cooperation with the Italian state have been noted in recent years. In particular, if we take the political sphere, it is possible to mention concrete agreements aimed at results, starting from bilateral visits,” Asadov said.
He noted that the Italian government is sympathetic to the deepening of Uzbekistan’s relations with the European Union. In particular, official Rome supports the signing of the Comprehensive Partnership and Cooperation Agreement between Uzbekistan and the European Union.
The presidential press secretary noted that more than 40 agreements with a total value of €9 billion were signed by the business circles of the two countries at the Uzbekistan-Italy business forum, and the Italian leadership expressed full support for Uzbekistan's entry into the World Trade Organization.
Asadov said that during the leaders’ meeting, opinions were also exchanged on regional issues.
“During the meetings with the leaders of Italy, opinions were also exchanged on regional issues, in particular, on the situation in Central Asia, on the ongoing economic and social changes. In addition, Italian leaders expressed their full support for Uzbekistan’s policy on Afghanistan, and it was agreed to establish broad cooperation in this regard.
Within the framework of the visit, the normative and legal basis of the cooperation between the two countries was significantly strengthened. 12 documents were received. These are mainly documents aimed at strengthening cooperation in industry, justice, culture, agriculture and other fields.
Without exaggeration, the official visits of our president to the Italian state create a great basis for the strengthening of economic, political, cultural and humanitarian relations between the two countries. This will serve to strengthen the friendly and strategic cooperation between the two countries,” he said.
