“At the present moment as never before we need to exchange views constantly, discuss very difficult questions which the international situation dictates now,” Medvedev said at a meeting with Uzbek counterpart Islam Karimov during a state visit to the Republic of Uzbekistan on Friday.

“I refer to the global financial and economic crisis, which actually affects almost all countries in the world, I also refer to a very difficult international situation, security issues, which are traditionally very complicated in the Central Asian region and which we should also discuss and broaden cooperation in this sphere,” Medvedev said.

According to Medvedev, these issues will be discussed not only at a bipartite meeting of the presidents, but also at following Russian-Uzbek negotiations in an enlarged format involving the chiefs of ministries and agencies of the countries.

“Certainly, there is a need to discuss bilateral relations,” the Russian president said.

In Medvedev’s view, the relations between Russia and Uzbekistan are developing “quite successfully.” Medvedev added that despite a quite difficult economic situation in the world the Russian-Uzbek trade ranged between three and four billion dollars in the previous year, according to various estimates.

“But this does not mean that we lack the opportunity to increase it (the bilateral trade - Itar-Tass). Certainly, such opportunities exist,” Medvedev pointed out.

He also noted that during his state visit in Uzbekistan the sides are planning to discuss the whole scope of domestic and foreign political, cultural and humanitarian issues.

“I am confident that we will be able to open up a new page in the history of our relations. I hope that this visit will be useful for our countries, our peoples,” Medvedev underlined.

The presidents of Russia and Uzbekistan are holding negotiations at Karimov’s countryside residence Durmen, which was built specially for receptions of official governmental delegations.