The first meeting of the Supreme Council for Strategic Partnership, chaired by the presidents of Uzbekistan and Turkey, will be held this year in Ankara. This was announced on August 5 at the first meeting of the Joint Strategy Planning Group, chaired by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Uzbekistan Abdulaziz Kamilov and Turkey Mevlut Cavushoglu, the Foreign Ministry said.

In preparation for the meeting of the heads of state, the two ministers discussed the state and the ways to advance the bilateral relations in the political, trade, economic, tourism, cultural, humanitarian and other fields.

The presidents of Uzbekistan, Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan reached an agreement to set up a council during a meeting in Tashkent in April 2018.

The two ministers noted the upward trend in the Uzbek-Turkish ties, the outcome of the meeting of the Uzbek-Turkish Joint Intergovernmental Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation, held on July 22-23 in Ankara.

Heads of delegations touched upon issues of building cultural and humanitarian ties. The Turkish side was invited to the upcoming XII International Music Festival “Sharq Taronalari” in Samarkand and the I International Festival of Artisans in Kokand.

Following the talks the parties reached an agreement to hold the second meeting of the Joint Strategy Planning Group chaired by the Foreign Ministers of the two states in 2020 in Tashkent.

After the meeting, Abdulaziz Kamilov and Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu signed a cooperation program between the Foreign Ministries of Uzbekistan and Turkey for 2020–2021, which provides for regular inter-MFA consultations in such areas as trade, investment, tourism, energy, transport, security, education and other issues, as well as cooperation within international and regional organizations.