Turkish, Uzbek foreign ministers attend joint strategic meeting

By Diyar Guldogan

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and his Uzbek counterpart Bakhtiyor Saidov on Wednesday discussed ties at a joint strategic meeting in the capital Ankara.

Fidan and Saidov co-chaired the third meeting of the Türkiye-Uzbekistan Joint Strategic Planning Group, where they discussed bilateral relations in the areas of energy, transportation, construction, tourism, defense, and education.

The ministers exchanged views on the efforts to increase mutual investments and achieve the goal of $5 billion trade volume.

Regional and international developments, including relations within the Organization of Turkic States (OTS) and other multilateral institutions were also on the agenda.

The ministers also talked about preparations of the 3rd meeting of High Level Strategic Cooperation Council.

Türkiye became the first country that recognized Uzbekistan in 1991, and diplomatic relations were established in 1992.

Ankara attaches great importance to the improvement of cooperation with Uzbekistan in all fields and wishes to further develop its relations benefiting from the close ties.