President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Mr President, friends, colleagues,
I would like to begin by thanking the President of Uzbekistan once again for inviting me on a state visit to your country.
This is one of my first foreign visits after forming the new Government and following the presidential election in Russia. Importantly, even during this period of changes, our partnership continued uninterrupted thanks to the level of cooperation that was achieved in our relations over the previous period. This partnership continued to expand dynamically and progressively.
I certainly agree with President Mirziyoyev that today’s talks were constructive and very useful. We have reviewed virtually all important political, economic, cultural and humanitarian issues of Russia-Uzbekistan cooperation.
The joint statement that we signed following the talks defined long-term guidelines for expanding bilateral contacts and set the corresponding goals.
A number of intergovernmental agreements and commercial contracts were concluded during the visit. Many of them are aimed at intensifying practical cooperation primarily in the economy. This is quite natural, since Russia is one of Uzbekistan’s key business partners.
Uzbekistan’s trade statistics and our trade statistics showed slightly different numbers as of the end of last year, but trade has nevertheless grown significantly and amounted to almost US$10 billion. Of course, there is room to grow, which we just discussed with the President. If we manage to implement all the projects and programmes that we discussed, and I have no doubt that we will, because both sides are committed and willing to work on it, we will then certainly see trade grow even more. It increased by almost 20 percent in the first quarter of this year.
Importantly, our countries are in the process of switching to settlements in national currencies, which we believe is vitally important. Cooperation between lending and banking institutions in financial settlements is expanding. The share of the ruble in mutual commercial transactions reached 58 percent as of late 2023 and continues to grow.
I have mentioned at the expanded and the restricted format meetings that over 3,000 companies with Russian participation are operating on the Uzbekistan’s market, which is a good start. More broadly, Russian capital investment in Uzbekistan’s economy has exceeded US$9 billion.
Energy is a strategic area, or at least among the most important ones. Our country reliably supplies Uzbekistan’s economy with hydrocarbon fuel on favourable terms, thus contributing to the stable operation of energy-intensive sectors of agriculture, as well as the public utilities sector.
Mr Mirziyoyev has already mentioned this, and I will say this, too: last October, the President of Uzbekistan, President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and I launched Gazprom’s pumping of Russian gas for consumers in Uzbekistan, by transit via Kazakhstan’s territory. I remember how it all started. The winter before last, Uzbekistan faced a difficult and critical situation due to the abnormally cold weather. I remember how Mr Mirziyoyev was worried looking for every opportunity, of course, to solve this problem, and, naturally, we all began to think about the future. The climate is changing, and we need to proactively take some steps.
Right now, work is underway to increase the capacity of the Central Asia – Centre gas pipeline system, which will make it possible to increase gas supplies to Uzbekistan to 11 billion cubic metres as early as next year.
Major Russian energy companies, such as Gazprom and LUKOIL, have been operating in the republic for a long time and quite effectively. They are developing gas fields. Tatneft and Zarubezhneft work on petrochemical production, refining, processing, fuel supplies, and increasing the output capacity of oil fields.
There are good prospects for cooperation in hydropower. RusHydro is providing assistance to Uzbekistan in creating flexible generation capacities that will help level out the country’s energy balance and ensure uninterrupted operation of the entire energy system of Uzbekistan.
The agenda includes the construction of two large pumped-storage power stations on lakes Aydarkul and Karateren with a total capacity of one gigawatt. This will be a great and significant contribution to the energy sector of Uzbekistan.
Peaceful atom, as Mr President has just mentioned, is another priority area. The protocol signed today to amend the relevant 2018 intergovernmental agreement creates an opportunity to build a small nuclear power plant in Uzbekistan using up-to-date Russian technology that meets the strictest safety and environmental protection requirements.
Rosatom works actively abroad, and is perhaps – not perhaps, but certainly is – the world leader in this sphere, the number one company in terms of the number of power units being built outside the Russian Federation.
Alexei [Likhachev], how many units are we building?
CEO of Rosatom State Corporation Alexei Likhachev: Twenty-two units are under construction and six are being negotiated.
Vladimir Putin: Yes, 20 blocks are under construction abroad and contracts for six more are being negotiated. Of course, Mr Mirziyoyev, we are ready to do everything in order to work effectively on Uzbekistan’s market.
Incidentally, with Russia’s assistance, Uzbekistan has built and successfully operates high-tech industrial technoparks in the Tashkent and Jizzakh regions. Two more technoparks are to open before the end of this year.
Joint projects are being discussed to build a copper concentrator and to launch a full-cycle integrated metallurgical cluster at an iron ore deposit.
Consistent efforts are being made to increase the volume and expand the range of mutual supplies of agricultural produce and food. During the expanded format talks, we recalled that not long ago the trade was under US$300 million.
Shavkat Mirziyoyev: 250.
Vladimir Putin: Yes, 250, and now, according to our colleagues, it stands at US$1.3 billion. We can do more, and we will expand this work, no doubt about it.
A comprehensive cooperation programme for the development of rail transport and infrastructure in Uzbekistan is under development. It includes supplies of Russian railway equipment and its production localisation.
Interaction on a large-scale project to create an International North-South Transport Corridor from Russia and Belarus to the Indian Ocean coast looks promising. One of its routes will pass here, next to Uzbekistan or across the territory of Uzbekistan. This is quite feasible and interesting from the point of view of creating additional opportunities, including Uzbekistan’s access to the ocean.
It is a well-known fact that over a million citizens of Uzbekistan live and work in Russia. President Mirziyoyev has always paid great attention to this and mentioned it now. We appreciate the significant contribution they are making to the development of the Russian economy, especially such fast-growing sectors as construction business, housing and utilities, transport and logistics. I hope their money transfers back home are a serious help to Uzbekistan’s economy and families across that country.
Importantly, the Russian authorities are doing and will continue to do everything necessary to ensure decent working conditions and social protection for the citizens of Uzbekistan working in Russia. We will continue to cooperate with the Uzbekistani authorities on all important migration-related matters. Today, we have discussed this separately with the relevant ministers, and we will step up our efforts in this regard on both sides.
Bilateral cultural and humanitarian ties are traditionally multifaceted. We are grateful to the leadership of the Republic of Uzbekistan for caring about the Russian language and Russian culture in general. We believe it is important that Russian is used as a language for interethnic communication in Uzbekistan. People use it in their everyday life, on television and on radio, and it is much needed in socially important spheres of life, including healthcare and education. We understand that this would be impossible without support from the top, from the President.
In this context, I would like to note the joint Class! initiative that is being successfully implemented. It is aimed at improving the quality of teaching Russian in Uzbekistan. This project covers 85 schools with over 26,000 students and more than 100 Russian teachers, as well as retraining of local teachers. I know the position of the President of Uzbekistan. He believes that this is not enough. He is asking us to increase the number of teachers. We will try to do so. I believe this is perfectly right. We will work on it.
Today, 63,000 citizens of Uzbekistan are studying at Russian universities, including 14,000 at the expense of the Russian budget. About 8,000 more study in 14 branches of Russian universities in Uzbekistan. A large network of branches of Russian universities has been created here, perhaps the largest one in the CIS.
Cooperation in the field of sports is developing. We welcome Uzbekistan’s readiness to host the Games of the Future international tournament in the future. As you know, the first games took place in February and March in Kazan. This is a fundamentally new format that combines physical sports and e-sports. I have already said so publicly, and I can say it again: I was surprised to discover that this new sport attracts such an enormous number of fans.
Of course, we discussed an entire range of issues on the regional agenda, as well as acute international topics. Let me stress that Russia’s and Uzbekistan’s positions largely overlap or are similar.
In conclusion, I would like to once again thank the President of Uzbekistan for the hospitality and excellent organisation of our joint work. I presume that this visit and our talks today will help further strengthen the entire range of Russian-Uzbekistani partnership. Obviously, all this will benefit both the peoples of Uzbekistan and the Russian Federation.
Thank you for your attention.