Turkey and Uzbekistan will hold the second high-level strategic cooperation council during President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s two-day visit to the capital Tashkent on Tuesday.
Erdoğan has arrived in the country upon the invitation of Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev and are expected to discuss all aspects of bilateral ties, cooperation and steps to deepen relations.
Apart from bilateral ties, the two leaders are also expected address regional and international issues.
"The relations between Turkey and Uzbekistan, which we have described as a 'strategic partnership based on brotherhood,' are developing in an atmosphere of mutual trust in all areas," Erdoğan said in an article published in the New Uzbekistan newspaper on Tuesday.
"In the framework of our talks, we will discuss the political, economic, military and social aspects of our bilateral cooperation in many areas, from energy to agriculture, from industry to culture, from youth issues to environmental issues," the president wrote. He also called on Turkish citizens to visit Uzbekistan "in the current period of revival," urging the public to invest in this country and contribute to the development of relations with Uzbekistan in all areas.
"The projects being implemented in Uzbekistan by our entrepreneurs are a source of pride for us, as well as a driving force for mutual trade," Erdoğan added.
"At a time when Turkey is expanding its ties with this ancient continent in the 'Asian Century' under the slogan 'More Asia,' we have a long history of deepening relations with our brotherly Uzbekistan in all areas."
Relations between the two strategic partners are expected to reach new heights with the visit.
Diplomatic ties between the two countries were established on March 4, 1992, months after Uzbekistan declared its independence on Aug. 31, 1991. Tashkent and Ankara marked three decades of diplomatic relations on March 4.
Turkey was also the first country to recognize Uzbekistan's independence on Dec. 16, 1991.
Though relations have had their ups and downs for various reasons over the years, this changed after Erdoğan visited Samarkand in November 2016.
As ties were being revived, a new era began between the two nations with the meeting of Erdoğan and Mirziyoyev during the trip. In October 2017, less than a year after taking office as president, Mirziyoyev became the senior-most Uzbek official to visit Turkey in 21 years.
Uzbekistan-Turkey relations were raised to the level of strategic partnership in 2017 as a result of the close friendship and political will between the countries' presidents. The same year, officials from the two nations also held a long-stalled Joint Economic Commission meeting and established the Turkey-Uzbekistan High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council in 2018. Ankara hosted the first meeting of this council in 2020.
The bilateral trade volume, which was over $1.2 billion in 2016, reached $2.1 billion in 2020 and exceeded $3.6 billion in 2021. Turkey is among Uzbekistan's top five trade partners and its trade volume is expected to reach $5 billion this year. Erdoğan also said the fact that imports and exports are at such close levels demonstrates how complementary and supportive trade relations between the two countries are. "I am confident that in 2022 we will achieve record results in bilateral trade."
Uzbekistan also officially joined the Organization of Turkic States in 2019 and is expected to host the annual summit on Nov. 11 this year.
On another note, Erdoğan also commented on Uzbekistan's growing role in the region, saying: "We appreciate Uzbekistan's leading role in mitigating the effects of human tragedies in Afghanistan. We support the transformation of Termez into a logistics hub for all international organizations, including the United Nations, in delivering humanitarian aid to Afghanistan. I would like to emphasize that we also highly value the concept of interdependence that Uzbekistan has put forward in the framework of the belt of prosperity and stability that it seeks to create in Central Asia and beyond."
