Uzbek President Mirziyoyev receives Turkish Parliamentary Speaker Kurtulmus

TASHKENT

President Shavkat Mirziyoyev received Turkish Parliamentary Speaker Numan Kurtulmus on Wednesday in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent,.

Kurtulmus emphasized that Türkiye is “closely following the reform program initiated by Mr. Mirziyoyev, which he calls the 'third great march of civilization' or 'third renaissance.'”

“We stated that it is an extremely important civilization project for the entire Islamic world and even for humanity as a whole, especially in this period,” he told Uzbek and Turkish media after a meeting at the Presidential Palace.

"We have mutually confirmed our views in order to ensure the unity and solidarity of the Turkish world and to establish a new, fair and equitable world," added Kurtulmus, pointing to the close relationship between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Uzbek counterpart.

Stating that they had the opportunity to talk about the commercial, economic and cultural relations during the meeting, Kurtulmus said Mirziyoyev expressed his views on studies that could increase the opportunities for a tripartite parliamentary diplomacy.

"Hopefully, we, as the Legislative Assembly of Uzbekistan, the Senate of Uzbekistan and the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye, will have established the bridges of the two countries in terms of parliamentary diplomacy as soon as possible by working in our friendship groups,” he said.

Asked what kind of work should be done to strengthen relations, Kurtulmus said: "There is an ongoing bilateral trade volume that has now exceeded the level of $3 billion. First of all, this should be increased to $5 billion in the medium term and above $10 billion in the long term. In addition to commercial relations, there is a huge potential in the fields of tourism and defense.”