Uzbekistan seeks to develop long term mutually beneficial cooperation with China

Azerbaijan, Baku, June 7 /Trend/

Trend European Desk Comemntator Viktoriya Zhavoronkova Trend European Desk Comemntator Viktoriya Zhavoronkova Relations between Uzbekistan and China have been actively developing for over the years after Uzbekistan gained independence, and now their development has received new impetus. The countries that have been holding talks and meetings at different levels during all this time reaffirmed their commitment to develop mutually beneficial bilateral cooperation during the visit of Uzbek President Islam Karimov to China. The main directions of cooperation of Uzbekistan and China are the economy, fighting terrorism, the SCO and humanitarian cooperation. Uzbekistan is an important source of production, in particular raw materials - chemical products, refined petroleum products and petrochemicals, plastics, polyethylene, non-ferrous metals, kaolin, and others for China. In addition, China is one of the largest buyers of Uzbek cotton, fertilizers, uranium, and more recently, gas. The neighboring Central Asia is an important raw material market for China, cooperation with Turkmenistan in particular in the field of gas imports can be a good example of it. Uzbekistan is also one of the major regional players, which is able to provide China with products for imports. Apart from the fact that China considers Central Asia as an alternative source of energy and mineral resources, the region is also relatively predictable and stable, which is important for this country. Tashkent has its own motivation for deepening bilateral cooperation with Beijing, among which there are both political and economic factors. The friendship with China is beneficial for Uzbekistan as a counterweight to cooperation with such political "heavyweights" as Russia and the United States. In economic terms, the interest of Tashkent can be reduced to benefit of the Chinese credits for the development of industrial infrastructure of the republic, and a large export market, which, as already cited above, exported a wide range of Uzbek products. Uzbekistan is implementing a number of priority projects in the social, oil and gas, telecommunications, healthcare, supply of equipment and other spheres on the basis of the credits. Several hundred Chinese companies are successfully operating in Uzbekistan. The project on the construction of China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway, which will allow the countries to facilitate the exchange of products and have a positive impact on the development of communications infrastructure in Uzbekistan in the case of realization, can be shown as a good example of cooperation between Uzbekistan and China. In addition, we can not neglect the implementation of joint investment project for construction of the pipeline Uzbekistan-China together with the Chinese partners. The countries are building the third line of the pipeline, the capacity of which will be increased by 25 billion cubic meters a year. In addition to economic cooperation, which is strategically important, these two countries are actively cooperating in the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which becomes an important factor in strengthening security and stability in the region. In addition, the SCO realized a lot of projects that serve the interests of Uzbekistan. Among them, for example, a system of logistics terminals in the regions of member countries, observers and dialogue partners of the Organization, the introduction of innovation and, in particular, energy-saving technologies in the SCO, SCO Development Bank, as well as the allocation of funds for the China member organizations, one of which is Uzbekistan. Apparently, Uzbekistan aims to develop relations with China and intends to actively promote bilateral trade, promote linkages in infrastructure, to develop cooperation in high technology and investment. Further strengthening of cooperation with China will allow Uzbekistan to develop the economy and trade, as well as enlist the support of a reliable political partner, as well as to diversify both the political and economic ties. Do you have any feedback? Contact our journalist at agency@trend.az