Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan hosted his Uzbek counterpart Bakhtiyor Saidov on Wednesday in the capital Ankara. The two ministers discussed ties at a joint strategic meeting.

Fidan and Saidov co-chaired the third meeting of the Türkiye-Uzbekistan Joint Strategic Planning Group, where they discussed bilateral ties in the energy, transportation, construction, tourism, defense and education sectors. The ministers exchanged views on the efforts to increase mutual investments and achieve the goal of $5 billion (TL 136.55 billion) trade volume.

Regional and international developments, including relations within the Organization of Turkic States (OTS) and other multilateral institutions, were also on the agenda. The ministers also talked about preparations for the third meeting of the High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council.

Türkiye became the first country to recognize Uzbekistan in 1991, and diplomatic relations were established in 1992. Ankara attaches great importance to the improvement of cooperation with Uzbekistan in all fields and wishes to further develop its relations benefiting from the close ties.