Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) — On 28 August, the second meeting of the Uzbek-Kazakh Expert Council was held via videoconference.

The event, organized by the Institute of Strategic and Interregional Studies under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan (ISMI) and the Kazakhstan Institute for Strategic Studies under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan (KazISS), was attended by representatives from expert-analytical and scientific-academic circles of the two countries.

It is worth noting that the Memorandum on the establishment of the Uzbek-Kazakh Expert Council was signed on August 8 during the state visit of the President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev to the Republic of Kazakhstan.

The signing ceremony of the memorandum took place in the presence of the heads of the two states.

Earlier, on 2 August, the first meeting of the Expert Council was held in Astana, following which the heads of ISMI and KazISS initialed the mentioned Memorandum.

The council is designed to provide regular and substantive expert dialogue between the countries by engaging relevant experts and specialists to discuss new ideas and develop proposals for further enhancing comprehensive cooperation between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.

The current second meeting of the expert council was dedicated to the outcomes of the recent state visit of President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev to Kazakhstan.

In his welcome speech, Eldor Aripov, Director of ISMI, noted that the summit of the leaders of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan was in many ways significant. The first meeting of the Supreme Intergovernmental Council took place. According to the expert, "this is the first example of such close cooperation between the two Central Asian countries, which is an indicator of a special level of trust."

The ISMI director also emphasized several important agreements reached during the visit. Among them was the adoption of the Strategic Partnership and Alliance Program for 2024-2034, which covered almost all issues of bilateral cooperation.

Eldor Aripov specifically highlighted the positive dynamics in the development of trade and economic cooperation between the two countries. According to him, in the last seven years alone, the trade turnover between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan has more than doubled, reaching about US$4.5 billion. In this context, it was stressed that the goal set by the heads of state to increase the trade turnover to US$10 billion in the coming years is quite an achievable target.

According to the expert, a significant support in this regard was the solid portfolio of new agreements and contracts signed following the visit, exceeding US$7 billion. The presidents launched major joint investment projects in the fields of energy, transport and logistics, metallurgy, textiles, agriculture, and construction, as well as between regions.

At the end of the meeting, the parties expressed their readiness to continue joint work to find new directions and drivers for the development of Uzbek-Kazakh cooperation.

To this end, an agreement was reached to develop a Work Plan for the Expert Council for 2024-2025.