As previously reported, on September 9-10, the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev visited Astana at the invitation of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev.

On September 10, the First summit on science and technology of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation has begun at the Palace of independence in the capital of Kazakhstan. 

President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev met the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev at this Palace. 

President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev opened the summit. 

The summit is held under "Science, technology, innovation and modernization in the Islamic world" slogan.

As it is known, on October 18, 2016, the 43rd session of the Council of foreign ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation was held in Tashkent, the main idea of which was "Education and enlightenment – the path to peace and creation" slogan. The summit in Astana is a logical continuation of the session held in Tashkent. 

President Shavkat Mirziyoyev delivered a speech at the summit. 

About 80 delegations of the member states and observer states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, regional and international organizations took part in the summit on science and technology. Astana Declaration was signed at OIC summit.  

Within the framework of the summit, the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev held meetings with the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran Hassan Rouhani, the President of the Republic of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani. 

At the meeting with the President of Iran, Shavkat Mirziyoyev sincerely congratulated Hassan Rouhani on the convincing victory in the recent presidential elections. 

People of Uzbekistan and Iran are connected to each other by commonality of history and culture, good-neighborly relations. Our people love and appreciate the classical literary heritage of each other. Today, the cooperation of our countries is being consistently strengthened. 

The head of our state touched upon the issues of cooperation in trade, economic, investment, transport and communication spheres and noted that more effective use of existing opportunities and broad potential, intensification of joint actions in this direction will allow to raise bilateral relations to a new level. 

Hassan Rouhani noted that Iran considers Uzbekistan its close and reliable partner, strengthening of friendly relations between our countries will serve further expansion of mutually beneficial and long-term relations. 

At the meeting with the President of the Republic of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan, issues of expanding cooperation between our countries in trade, economic, investment, tourism and other spheres were considered. Importance of organizing regular meetings between representatives of relevant ministries and business circles of the two countries for development and implementation of mutually beneficial and long-term projects was noted. 

The heads of the states noted that Uzbekistan and Turkey see important and long-term partners in each other, the parties are in favor of expanding cooperation on the basis of mutual trust and raising it to a higher level that serves the interests of our people. 

President of our country Shavkat Mirziyoyev at the meeting with the President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani noted that he was glad to meet him again. 

Based on the agreements reached during the meeting of the heads of the two states within the framework of the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in June this year, a "roadmap" was adopted on further intensification of bilateral cooperation. As a result of its consistent implementation, trade and economic ties between our countries are developing dynamically. In the first half of 2017, the trade turnover between our countries has increased by 18,5 percent. 

It was noted that the volume of trade turnover will increase even more after this meeting of the heads of the two states. 

Prospects of further development of bilateral relations in political, trade, economic, transport, communication, cultural and humanitarian spheres were discussed at the meeting. 

During the meeting of the head of our state Shavkat Mirziyoyev with the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, the current state of relations between Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan, prospects of development of cooperation in trade, economic, transport-communication and other spheres were discussed. Special attention was paid to issues of effective use of the huge economic potential of the two countries, increasing the volume and expanding the range of mutual trade turnover. 

Thereupon, the visit of the President of our country Shavkat Mirziyoyev to the Republic of Kazakhstan ended. 

UzA