On December 26, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev attended the regular meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council in St. Petersburg as the leader of an observer-state, the presidential press service said.
The meeting, chaired by the Armenian Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinyan (via conference call), was also attended by the presidents Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev of Kazakhstan, Sadyr Japarov of Kyrgyzstan, Vladimir Putin of Russia, as well as the Minister of Industry, Mines and Trade of Iran, an observer country in the EAEU, Seyed Mohammad Atabak. The Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel addressed the participants with a video message.
The agenda included the ways to expand multilateral trade and economic cooperation, supporting industrial cooperation projects, and implementing joint programs in priority areas of interaction.
In his remarks, Shavkat Mirziyoyev underscored that in recent years, Uzbekistan, as an observer, had built fruitful cooperation with the Eurasian Economic Union in 22 areas. In 2024, Uzbekistan's trade with the EAEU countries increased by 11%.
In October, a new three-year plan for cooperation with the Eurasian Economic Commission was adopted, including about 40 events in such areas as trade, industry, the financial sector, agriculture, transport and others.
Uzbekistan has also joined a number of EAEU sectoral programs in the field of digitalization of trade and cargo transportation, the introduction of e-commerce, and the fight against climate change.
Preparations are underway for the fourth meeting of the joint working group in March next year.
Shavkat Mirziyoyev called for the gradual elimination of trade barriers in mutual trade. In this context, it was proposed to work out at the expert level the issue of non-application of tariff and non-tariff restrictions in trade between Uzbekistan and the EAEU states.
He voiced Uzbekistan's readiness to hold consultations in the near future on the convergence of technical regulation systems with the adoption of a practical action plan.
The leader of Uzbekistan spoke in favor of the country's participation in the agreement on a unified customs transit system to be signed following the event, as well as for the speedy introduction of electronic data exchange on goods and vehicles moving across customs borders.
He expressed interest in joining the mechanisms and tools to support industrial cooperation and localization programs.
"In order to form reliable financial sources for promoting joint projects, we plan to complete the procedures and join the Eurasian Development Bank early next year," the president underscored.
In order to more actively involve businesses and create favorable conditions for strengthening business ties, it was proposed to hold a meeting of the EAEU Business Council in Tashkent in April 2025.
The importance of systemic interaction in the field of digital technologies and artificial intelligence was underscored. An initiative was put forward to connect the country to the Integrated Information System of the EAEU and the Digital Union project.
"In order to encourage tourist exchanges, we intend to introduce a procedure that allows citizens of the union states to enter our country using internal documents," said Shavkat Mirziyoyev.
In the field of agriculture, it was proposed to prepare a cooperation program aimed at facilitating mutual access to agricultural products, implementing innovative agro-industrial projects and introducing scientific developments.
