The President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev and the Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan Shahbaz Sharif conducted negotiations in a narrow format and with the participation of official delegations. This was reported by the Presidential press service.
The expansion and strengthening of Uzbekistan-Pakistan strategic partnership relations in all directions were discussed.
At the beginning of the conversation, the Prime Minister of Pakistan Shahbaz Sharif expressed his gratitude to our President for the warm reception.
The heads of state noted with great satisfaction the rapid development of multifaceted cooperation in recent years.
Active political dialogues, efficient inter-parliamentary and inter-departmental exchanges are continuing.
In 2024, the volume of trade turnover exceeded 400 million dollars, and the number of joint ventures reached 130. Trading houses were opened in Karachi and Tashkent. Direct flights between Tashkent and Lahore were resumed.
The intergovernmental commission meeting, business forums, and the National Industry Exhibition of Uzbekistan were successfully held.
The negotiations paid special attention to issues of expanding trade and economic cooperation.
The importance of taking coordinated measures based on the adopted "road map" to increase the volume of trade to 2 billion dollars was emphasized.
As priority tasks, expanding the list of goods under the preferential trade agreement, simplifying phytosanitary and quarantine requirements, customs procedures, aligning standards, integrating e-commerce platforms, ensuring participation in purchases, improving inter-bank settlement mechanisms, and others were identified.
Plans for implementing cooperation projects by leading companies in the fields of pharmaceuticals, electrotechnical industry, agricultural machinery, geology and mineral resources, textiles, leather industry, and other sectors were reviewed.
With the aim of encouraging business and cultural relations between the regions, our state leader proposed holding a forum of the two countries' regions in Uzbekistan.
The leaders of Uzbekistan and Pakistan specifically focused on issues of enhancing connectivity and bringing into play the transit potential in terms of transportation.
In the past few years, the volume of cargo transportation through the "Uzbekistan – Afghanistan – Pakistan" multimodal corridor has increased fivefold, which was noted with satisfaction. It was agreed to establish a joint transport and logistics company to further increase the volume of cargo turnover.
Coordinating joint efforts to advance the construction of the Trans-Afghan railway project was emphasized as important.
The next meeting of the intergovernmental commission is agreed to be held in the city of Lahore in July of this current year.
The parties noted the importance of further expanding cultural-humanitarian and tourism exchanges. In this sense, it was agreed to hold presentations of mutual Culture Weeks and tourism programs.
Exchanges of views also took place on pressing issues of international and regional significance. The importance of continuing mutual support within the framework of the United Nations, the Non-Aligned Movement, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, the SCO, and other multilateral structures was noted.
The President of Uzbekistan and the Prime Minister of Pakistan emphasized the necessity of uniting efforts in fighting terrorism, radicalism, Islamophobia, and other modern threats to security.
It was agreed to establish the High-Level Strategic Partnership Council and to hold its first meeting next year, with the aim of developing new directions of extensive cooperation.
At the conclusion of the high-level negotiations, a decision was made to develop and approve a joint "road map" for the timely implementation of the agreements reached and the treaties signed.
