Greeting the guest, Uzbek President Islam Karimov noted that Uzbekistan attaches a great significance to the participation in CIS activities. In the Concept of Foreign Policy Activity of the Republic of Uzbekistan adopted last year, the involvement in the CIS is defined as one of the priority dimensions of our country’s interaction with multilateral international institutions. The CIS can and is expected to play the role of a coordinator of multifaceted interaction and remain as a platform for direct communication and maintenance of interstate dialogue within the ties established among the region’s nations. Thus, the demand in and the importance of the Commonwealth has been consistent for every member nation.

Issues of trade and economic cooperation, those regarding the development of transport communications, addressing transnational threats and challenges remain as priority areas of the interaction of the Republic of Uzbekistan within the CIS, UzA reported.

The CIS participating countries are the leading trade partners of Uzbekistan, which is confirmed by the indicators of trade turnover that in 2012 constituted US$12.4 billion or 47.2 percent of the overall volume of our nation’s external trade.

The conversation has served to exchange views on issues of mutual interest, including the elevation of effectiveness in the activity of Commonwealth bodies as well as the prospects of multilateral integration processes and other topics.

Sergey Lebedev expressed sincere gratitude to the President of Uzbekistan for a warm welcome and appreciated highly the participation of our country in furthering the goals set by the CIS. The regular session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Commonwealth in Tashkent and the directives approved at the end of negotiations will indisputably afford a new impetus in the further consolidation of the multilayered mutually advantageous cooperation within the CIS.

Toward the conclusion of the meeting, the head of our state has wished the parties to the session of the Council of Foreign Ministers successful and prolific endeavors.