The statement said this is the second visit of Russian Foreign Minister to Uzbekistan. He paid a working visit to Tashkent in October 2005.

Russian embassy said the visit is organized for full-scale exchange of opinion with the Uzbek side on all directions of bilateral relations between the Russia and Uzbekistan in context of the upcoming the Russian-Uzbek summit in Moscow, which will be held in the beginning of 2010.

Sergey Lavrov will meet the Uzbek President Islam Karimov and his Uzbek counterpart Vladimir Norov. The sides will consider issues of actual Russian-Uzbek cooperation and interaction of Russia and Uzbekistan in international arena.

The sides will exchange opinion on cooperation during the presidency of Uzbekistan in the SCO and Russian presidency in the CIS in 2010, as well as situation in Afghanistan. The sides will also discuss issues of regional security and stability, as well as interaction within the UN, OSCE, CIS, CSTO and the SCO.

After the talks, the sides are planning to sign Cooperation Programme between the foreign ministries of Russia and Uzbekistan in 2010.

Uzbekistan is fourth largest trade partner of Russia in the CIS state with the share of 3% after Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan. In January-October 2009, the mutual trade between two states exceeded US$2 billion.

The sides actively cooperate in development of transport, fuel-energy complex, implementation of investment projects and space development. Currently, over 800 joint ventures with Russian investments operate in Uzbekistan.