President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev highly praised Uzbekistan's development in recent years and the changes implemented in the country under the leadership of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev.
He emphasized that there is a huge difference between the situation during the period when Shavkat Mirziyoyev came to the leadership of Uzbekistan and the current state.
“When Shavkat Miromonovich began to lead Uzbekistan, the situation was completely different. Both the citizens of Uzbekistan and we know this very well. Therefore, he had to work with great effort to put the country on the path of development and to form the economic aspects of the state from scratch,” said Ilham Aliyev.
The Azerbaijani leader also touched upon the work on developing industry and agriculture and attracting foreign investments.
“Today we are seeing a completely different Uzbekistan — an Uzbekistan that has become a very respected member of the world community. Issues related to industrial development, agriculture, energy, and transport infrastructure are being resolved very quickly and effectively,” he said.
According to Ilham Aliyev, the work and reforms implemented in Uzbekistan have also created an important foundation for cooperation projects between the two countries.
“Without the work done for Uzbekistan by Shavkat Mirziyoyev and his team and without these reforms, it would not have been possible to implement a single cooperation project,” said the President of Azerbaijan.
He also emphasized that before Shavkat Mirziyoyev came to the leadership of Uzbekistan, there were no joint projects between the two countries.
Currently, the parties have set the goal of bringing mutual trade turnover to 1 billion dollars. Ilham Aliyev assessed this indicator not as a long-term dream, but as a result to be achieved in the next two years.
“Today we are talking about a 1 billion trade turnover. This is not some long-term dream, but a task that will be fulfilled in the next two years,” he said.
The Azerbaijani leader noted that investment projects and mutual investments in areas where the economies of both sides feel the need were also discussed, and that such cooperation emerged as a result of the parallel development of the two countries.
