Acting President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev received Minister of foreign affairs of the People's Republic of China Wang Yi on 12 October. 

Warmly greeting the guest, Shavkat Mirziyoyev expressed sincere thanks to the leadership of the People's Republic of China and personally to President Xi Jinping for deep condolences and support of the peoples of Uzbekistan in regards with the death of the First President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov. Paying a tribute to his memory during a visit to Samarkand by the head of the Chinese foreign ministry demonstrated a high respect to our First President. 

During the conversation, held in a traditionally open and good-willing atmosphere, the parties noted the steady development and strengthening of the Uzbek-Chinese relations of a comprehensive strategic partnership. 

In this regard, the visits of President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov to the PRC in 2015 and President of China Xi Jinping to Uzbekistan in 2016 have strengthened the relations of mutual understanding and trust, provided a powerful incentive to a mutually beneficial cooperation. 

The parties attach exclusively important significance to the regular dialogue at the highest level. The agreement was reached to continue this practice in the future with a next meeting to take place in 2017. 

Wang Yi once more highly appraised the Tashkent meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and its results. A mutual interest to maintain close interaction of the two countries within the SCO frameworks as well as several other international organizations was underlined. 

A productive interaction within the framework of the Uzbek-Chinese intergovernmental committee on cooperation and its seven sub-committees was highlighted.

Annual political consultations between the foreign ministries of the two countries, which has turned into effective and required mechanism for the exchange of views on a wide array of bilateral, regional and international issues, are an important part of bilateral agenda. 

The state and prospects of trade-economic, investment, financial and technical cooperation were also on the focus of the negotiations. 

The People's Republic of China is one of the leading commercial and investment partners of Uzbekistan. The volume of trade turnover between our countries exceed 4 billion US dollars. Over 6,5 billion US dollars of Chinese investments and loans have been attracted to priority projects in Uzbekistan. 

Chinese companies and banks have participated in implementation of important projects on industrial development and infrastructure such as the construction of 19-km railway tunnel through Qamchiq pass, Dehkanabad potash fertilizers plant, Kungrad soda plant, manufacturing of modern excavators and bulldozers on Khorezm region, on developing telecommunications and information technologies, as well investment projects at the Jizzakh free economic zone. 

Currently significant investment projects on constructing a plant on manufacturing car and agritechnical tyres, conveyor belts at the Angren free economic zone and polyvinylchloride, caustic soda and methanol production complex at the Navoiazot JSC are underway. Joint development of projects in power generation, oil and gas, irrigation and melioration, infrastructure modernization and other spheres have started.

The parties highly acknowledged the Uzbek-Chinese cultural-humanitarian ties, supporting wide-ranging deepening of a mutual understanding between the two nations. 

The head of the Chinese foreign ministry Wang Yi expressed a sincere gratitude to Shavkat Mirziyoyev for a warm welcome and confirmed commitment of the PRC leadership to actively broaden and deepen cooperation with Uzbekistan in all prospective areas, meeting the long-term interests of the two countries, to carry out joint efforts for stability, security, sustainable socio-economic development of the Republic of Uzbekistan and the People's Republic of China. 

Acting President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev conveyed good wishes of strong health and successes to President of the PRC Xi Jinping as well as peace and further prosperity to the peoples of the China. 

UzA