President Shavkat Mirziyoyev hosted the visiting commander of the Central Command of the US Armed Forces, General Joseph Votel, who arrived in our country to attend the meeting of chiefs of general staffs of the countries of the Central and South Asia.

Warmly welcoming the guest, Shavkat Mirziyoyev highlighted that the fruitful talks that took place during his official visit to the United States in May last year have opened a new era of strategic full-scale partnership ties between the two countries.

Currently, the multi-faceted Uzbek-US relations are being consistently strengthened, joint programs and projects are being implemented in the fields of innovation, industry, agriculture, pharmaceuticals and other industries. The volume of the two-way trade doubled in 2018.

He noted that the meeting of chiefs of staff of the Armed Forces of Central and South Asia, organized by the U.S. Central Command, is held for the first time in Tashkent and is a platform for discussing and developing joint approaches to solving one of the most acute problems of our time - the armed conflict in Afghanistan

The parties also touched upon the expansion of the Uzbek-US military, military-technical and security cooperation.

Joseph Votel sincerely thanked the President of Uzbekistan for the warm welcome and the opportunity to hold the conference in Tashkent.

He expressed the hope that based on the outcomes of the event, the parties would be able to work out a strategy for the development and deepening of constructive partnership for the sake of peace and prosperity in the region.