Uzbekistan, Russia presidents sign major cooperation agreements

Uzbekistan, Tashkent, June 5 /Trend, D.Azizov / Presidents Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan and Vladimir Putin of Russia signed Monday a declaration on deepening the Uzbek-Russian strategic partnership and the memorandum of understanding between Russia and Uzbekistan on further joint measures for the Central Asian country's accession to the CIS free trade agreement, Trend correspondent who attended the signing ceremony reported. Putin signed the agreement during his short official visit to Uzbekistan. The declaration establishes a new level of allied relations and strategic partnership between the two countries, Uzbek president's press-service told Trend. The document also assesses the interaction and further development of cooperation within the UN, SCO, CIS and CSTO. In addition, the Declaration reflects the prospects of cooperation between the two countries in the trade-economic, cultural, humanitarian, scientific and technical, military-technical, transport and communications and other fields. According to the MoU signed on Monday, Russia supports Uzbekistan's accession to the CIS free trade agreement. The parties agreed to take concerted action steps for early completion of the multilateral negotiations on formalizing Uzbekistan's accession to the agreement before the end of 2012.