ANKARA

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday that his country and Uzbekistan are targeting a $10 billion trade volume. 

“Our trade volume last year increased by nearly 72% to surpass $3.6 billion,” Erdogan said at a news conference alongside Uzbekistani President Shavkat Mirziyoyev. 

“I believe that we will obtain our $5 billion target in the shortest span of time – in a year as per our goal. Not making do with that, we will further raise the bar to the level of $10 billion with the joint steps we will take subsequently,” he added.

Erdogan said Turkiye was the first country to recognize Uzbekistan’s independence and open an embassy in Tashkent, and he drew attention to the strong ties of common history, culture, language and faith as the basis of relations between the two nations.

“We have promoted the relations between our countries to the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership level as a result of our talks,” he said.​​​​​​​