Uzbekistan improved its relations with Tajikistan and recently even held first-ever joint
uzbek-tajik military exercises at the common border with Afghanistan.
Uzbekistan also showed great effort to play a bigger role in the peace process in
Afghanistan and is ready to support sustainable development of its southern neighbor. And
Afghanistan initiated and endorsed UN resolution for more regional cooperation in Central Asia
which was adopted in June.
These are among the other steps to what’s more common understanding peace and
stability in the region and they are acknowledged all over the world and of course also in
Europe and Germany.
Therefore, today we want to talk about German-Uzbek cooperation for security and
development in Central Asia. What are our common goals? How can we achieve them? What
do we expect from each other?
And I’m very happy that we will be able to hear Mr. Niels Annen give us a key note on
this topic and then of course hear the other comments of our Uzbek partners.
I want to use first this opportunity to thank Mr. Vladimir Norov and staff members of the
Institute for Strategic and Regional Studies for good cooperation and organizing this event.
Thanks to German embassy for their support. Thanks to the speakers of today’s
program. Thanks to you for your interests and that, you came and I wish us a fruitful exchange
today.
Thank you very much.
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