Presidents of Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan made statements for the press

On August 23 in Tashkent, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev made statements to the press.

As reported by BAKU.WS, the President of Uzbekistan made his statement first.

Then the President of Azerbaijan made his statement.

Statement

by President Ilham Aliyev

- Thank you, dear Shavkat Miromonovich.

Dear friends.

First of all, I would like to once again express my gratitude to you for the invitation, for the hospitality, for such a sincere attitude toward Azerbaijan and the Azerbaijani people.

As you know, we harbor the same kind, brotherly feelings toward Uzbekistan and the brotherly people of Uzbekistan. And I believe today's results of the visit confirm this once again. But first of all, I would like to note once more that this is not my first visit to Tashkent, and every time I come here, I notice rapid development. This is visible in everything: both in major projects and in details. Tashkent and all of Uzbekistan are on the rise today. And this is the result of the work of my dear brother Shavkat Miromonovich, work that is aimed at strengthening the potential of Uzbekistan, strengthening its position on the international stage, and addressing the most important socio-economic challenges.

When Shavkat Miromonovich took the helm of Uzbekistan, the situation was completely different. The citizens of Uzbekistan know this well, and so do we. And therefore he had to make enormous efforts to put the country on the path of development, to essentially build from scratch the economic foundations of the state's development, to diversify the economy, to develop industry, to develop agriculture, again on a diversified scale, to attract investment into those sectors of the economy that had and have great potential. And today we see a completely different Uzbekistan. An Uzbekistan that is a very respected member of the global community, where issues of industrial development, agriculture, energy, and transport infrastructure are being addressed promptly and effectively. Everything that Shavkat Miromonovich spoke about in relation to our bilateral relations primarily pertains to what he and his team have done for Uzbekistan.

I already spoke about this today: if there had been no groundwork, no potential, it would have been impossible to implement a single joint project. In principle, even before Shavkat Miromonovich took the helm of Uzbekistan, there was not a single joint project between our countries. And today we speak of the goal of one billion in trade turnover not as some distant dream, but as something we will probably achieve in a couple of years. And what was discussed today: those investment projects of mutual investments