President Shavkat Mirziyoyev signed the Nakhichevan Agreement Ratification Bill on the establishment of the Cooperation Council for Turkic-speaking states (Nakhichevan, October 3, 2009) into the Law Saturday, the Ministry of Justice said.
The Bill was earlier on the same day approved by the Senate. During the discussion of the Bill, it was noted that Uzbekistan’s membership in the council wouldl facilitate trade and investment, simplify customs and transit procedures for the gradual transition to the free movement of goods, capital, services and technologies and ease financial and banking operations.
Prior to this, four countries were members of the council: Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkey, and with Hungary being the observer-state. The structure of the organization consists of the Council of Heads of State, the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs, the Committee of Senior Officials, the Council of Elders of Turkic-speaking States and the Secretariat, headquartered in Istanbul.
Baghdad Amreyev, the Secretary General of the Turkic Council, called Uzbekistan’s accession into the organization a historic event and expressed confidence that this would give an impetus to the Council and strengthen cooperation between the Turkic-speaking countries.
Amreev added that the president of Uzbekistan will attend the 7th summit of the council, which will be held on October 15 in Baku.
