(MENAFN- Trend News Agency)
BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 15. The state visit
of the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev to Uzbekistan in June
2022 became an important indicator of interregional rapprochement,
head of the department of the Institute for Strategic and
Interregional Studies under the President of the Republic of
Uzbekistan, Milana Bazarova told Trend.
According to her, the scale of the designated guidelines for the
upcoming bilateral cooperation, as well as the established personal
relations between the leaders of Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan, allow
concluding that the two countries are moving towards a growing
multifaceted dialogue.
'The agreements reached during the visit of President Ilham
Aliyev to Uzbekistan provided new introductory points for building
up deep points of growth in mutual relation. Azerbaijan and
Uzbekistan signed 18 documents and a declaration on deepening the
strategic partnership and building up comprehensive cooperation
between both sides. The declaration included expanding of
commercial and economic cooperation, industrial cooperation,
effective use of transport and transit potential,' Bazarova
said.
She added that there is no doubt that Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan
consider each other economically promising partners, the potential
for development of cooperation between which has not yet been fully
reached. However, it's pleasing to realize that there is a huge
demand for this, especially from large and small businesses.
'Thanks to the joint efforts over only five past years trade
turnover between Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan increased by seven times
- from $17.1 million up to $118.8 million. If 178 companies with
Azerbaijani participation were operating in Uzbekistan at the
beginning of 2022, right now that number increased up to 238,'
Bazarova informed.
The Head of the department stated that Uzbek companies are not
yet represented in the Azerbaijani market on such a large scale -
their number has reached 53. However, Uzbekistan expects that this
figure will steadily increase, especially given the growing
interest of Azerbaijani investors in Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan
assimilated $64.1 million of Azerbaijani investments in 2021. It's
expected that Uzbekistan will assimilate investments in the amount
of 82.4 million rubles. ($1.3 million) in 2022.
'In the bilateral format, there are ample opportunities for a
radical intensification of interaction in a bilateral format, and
this is, first of all, the 'complementarity factor of economies',
which is already being successfully used,' Bazarova explained.
She stressed that Uzbekistan believes that it will be mutually
beneficial for Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan to strengthen the work to
attract Azerbaijani companies to industrial cooperation with Uzbek
manufacturers in such areas as the textile industry, leather
production, jewelry, etc. And the interest in the presence of Uzbek
products is steadily growing in the Azerbaijani market.
'One of the key success factors in the development of
Azerbaijani-Uzbek relations is the fact that Uzbekistan and
Azerbaijan are united by a common approach to the strategy of
internal and external development. Tashkent and Baku are the only
states in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) that aren't
members of any military-political blocs. At a time when the world
is splitting into alliances, Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan are playing
a 'fair game' with global actors, emphasizing the pragmatic
diversification of cooperation. This is largely determined by the
maintenance of political stability in Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan by
its leaders,' she pointed out.
Bazarova added that reforms carried out by Shavkat Mirziyoyev
and Ilham Aliyev are developing in unison with an emphasis on
promoting a market economy and flexible integration into the global
financial system.
She also commented on the role of transport and logistics
projects in strengthening bilateral cooperation and developing of
interregional interaction.
'Uzbekistan is aware of what priority Azerbaijan attaches to the
formation of an extensive system of transport and logistics
corridors. I can say that Uzbekistan also advocates the development
of transport connectivity as an important factor in the growth of
the country's economy. Today, 6.4 percent of Uzbekistan's GDP comes
from transport services, 7.4 percent of total investment and almost
30 percent of the service sector is accounted for by transport. By
2030 plans to increase the capacity of the transit potential by 4.4
times and bring the figure to 6 billion tons,' Bazarova
informed.
According to her based on a common interest in this key segment,
expanding practical cooperation in the field of transport
communications is at the center Uzbek-Azerbaijani cooperation
agenda.
'With similar geographical advantages, Azerbaijan, along with
Uzbekistan, together have the potential to become key transport
hubs in their regions. Within the framework of the Trans-Caspian
International Transport Route, both countries act as 'connecting
bridges' between Central Asia and the South Caucasus, and more
broadly, between the continents of Europe and Asia,' she
explained.
Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan seek to use all opportunities in order
to increase mutual cargo transportation and boost the transit
potential of both countries. In particular, the possibility to
create joint agricultural and logistical clusters, oriented on the
processing and export of agricultural production. Today, Uzbekistan
uses the transit potential of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars, railway, which
ensures entry of Uzbek products on the world market, productively
and mutually beneficial.
'The increase in the cargo transportation through the
Turkmenbashi international seaport and Baku international trade
seaport as well as reconstruction of Zangazur corridor are
promising. Uzbekistan is interested in the revival of this
important transit section, considering it an economically
beneficial project that will bring benefits to all participants
without exception. The reopening of this route will become a pillar
for resolving contentious issues, will become a factor in ensuring
the peaceful coexistence of the two persons and reestablishment of
sustainable peace in the region,' the head of the department
informed.
Bazarova noted that cooperation on these projects can serve to
create a single transport network between countries, and ensure
deeper integration of all the states of Central Asia and the
Caucasus into global supply chains and active participation in the
international transit of goods.
She assessed the role of Uzbekistan in the activities of the SCO
and commented on Uzbekistan's achievement of high recognition in
SCO.
“Today in the media various kinds of speculation that the SCO
may become a kind of 'antithesis' to the West can be seen. However,
it's absolutely obvious that the main role of the Shanghai
Organization has been and continues to be only constructive, which
Uzbekistan stands for and which was clearly indicated in the
recently published 'Samarkand SCO summit: dialogue and cooperation
in an interconnected world' article by the President of Uzbekistan
Shavkat Mirziyoyev,' she reaffirmed.
She emphasized that despite its internal 'diversity' in terms of
starting potential, and the level of socio-economic and political
development, this Organization has managed to find a universal
model of relationships. The attractiveness of the SCO is that it
actively promotes the concept of multifaceted cooperation, does not
'profess' the ideas of bloc thinking, and doesn't direct its
activities against other nations and nationalities. Instead, the
Organization is identifying new 'points of growth' - this time,
under the chairmanship of Uzbekistan, the points will be the
development of transport, energy, food and environmental security,
innovation, digital modernization and the 'green' economy.
”It was not in vain that I indicated these areas because they
reflect how depoliticized, how economically determined Uzbekistan
approaches the development of the Shanghai Organization. We proceed
from the fact that cooperation within the framework of the SCO
could bring tangible bonuses to the 'treasury' of development not
only of the country itself but also of Uzbekistan's partners.
Perhaps this is what allows states to join the initiatives of the
country without undue fear,” Bazarova said.
According to her, the priorities put forward by Uzbekistan
during her chairmanship can be seen as Tashkent's appeals to its
fellow SCO members to rethink the value of multilateral cooperation
in the face of growing conflict phenomenons, multiplying dividing
lines in the relations between small and large countries. Only the
desire for a pragmatic dialogue, mutual respect, and mutual
readiness to meet each other's needs can 'narrow the growing gulf'
between states, and 'keep the world' from the dangerous line it's
approaching.
She expressed that this format of relations seems to be more
true than ever, and most importantly practical, given that it
formed the basis for the development of both Uzbekistan's regional
policy and relations with countries on the global stage, including
in the framework of cooperation with international structures
'Expectations from the upcoming SCO summit in Samarkand are
connected not only with the determination of the further trajectory
of the development of the SCO as such. Uzbekistan hopes that this
event, having gathered on its platform the interests and
aspirations of countries representing different continents in this
difficult period of geopolitical changes, will help each of its
participants to 'take away' practical and tangible results with
them,' Bazarova concluded.
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