It was a productive day for Indo-Uzbek relations. India and Uzbekistan inked 17 agreements on Monday, during Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev's first ever state visit to India. These agreements include closer military cooperation, better people-to-people ties, and of course, business.
"We have so many common words like ‘friend’, ‘guest’ and ‘aziz’ which are prevalent in both the countries,'' said Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his address to the Uzbekistan delegation. "This is not just a similarity in our languages, this is a meeting of hearts and emotions."
India and Uzbekistan have set a bilateral trade target of $1 billion by 2020. India will also provide a Line of Credit of $200 million for low cost homes and other such social infrastructure projects in Uzbekistan.
This is the fourth meeting between Modi and President Mirziyoyev. For India, which is hoping to find firm allies in Central Asia, Uzbekistan can serve as an important foothold as the country shares its border with Afghanistan. India and Uzbekistan have also “discussed the situation in Afghanistan’’. Support for “efforts of the government and the people for a genuine Afghan-owned, Afghan-led and Afghan-controlled peace and reconciliation process’’ was emphasised by both sides.
There was also an agreement signed between Usbek city Andijan and Gujarat. The Uzbek government is impressed by the development that the state has witnessed and hopes that Andijan can take a few practical lessons from Modi’s Gujarat.
Mirziyoyev, who has been the president of Uzbekistan since 2016 and was the prime minister of the country before that, has introduced a slew of reforms, including opening up the economy. There is a stress on creating the right environment for business and investment. An India-Uzbekistan Business Council has been formed to help facilitate this process. A panel of Indian and Uzbekistan experts will conduct Joint Feasibility Study and start negotiations for India-Uzbekistan Preferential Trade Agreement by the end of 2018.
Apart from economy, the two countries have also signed agreements to expand cooperation in the IT sector as well as to have closer defence ties.
