As part of his stay in the United States, the first deputy chairman of the Senate of the Oliy Majlis Sodiq Safoev on November 18 met with the U.S. Senators Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Ben Cardin (D-MD), Dunyo said.
According to the Uzbek embassy, one of the youngest U.S. senators Tom Cotton, who is also a member of the US Senate Committees on Banking, Armed Forces and Intelligence, acknowledged the effectiveness of reforms by the leadership of Uzbekistan, which, in his opinion, sets the "tone for the entire region." The senator Cotton emphasized the significance importance of military cooperation between Uzbekistan and the United States, which, in his words, laid a solid foundation for bilateral ties.
The senator commended Uzbekistan’s contribution for stabilizing the situation in Afghanistan, stressing the importance of establishing trilateral negotiations in the US-Uzbekistan-Afghanistan format. He welcomed the country’s efforts to launch mechanisms for an inter-Afghan dialogue, the socio-economic rehabilitation of Afghanistan, as well as the country's involvement in the integration processes in Central Asia. According to him, Uzbekistan’s initiatives, including the Tashkent Conference on Afghanistan in March 2018, also served to intensify the Afghan peace settlement. According to him, "Washington realizes the importance of the role that Uzbekistan plays in the peace process."
The senator, Ben Cardin, representing Maryland in Congress since 1987, noted the growing authority of Uzbekistan in the international arena, the country's active involvement in multilateral structures, including the UN and its specialized bodies. He highly valued the cooperation of the republic with the OSCE, stressing that Uzbekistan is turning into one of the leaders of this organization. “I would welcome Uzbekistan to become the chairman of the OSCE in the foreseeable future, since the republic can already quite claim this role,” he said.
