TASHKENT - 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. Then, the President of Azerbaijan made the statement.
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.
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