TASHKENT: Uzbekistan’s President Shavkat Mirziyoyev is scheduled to visit Germany on May 2-3, 2023, marking his second official visit to the country after his first one in 2019. The visit is expected to further strengthen the multifaceted partnership between Uzbekistan and Germany, covering various sectors of the global economy, including trade, economic, investment, and technological areas.
The partnership between Uzbekistan and Germany has been time-tested and reliable, with both nations sharing similar positions on many issues, including fighting terrorism, organized crime, drug trafficking, and addressing the situation in Afghanistan. The two countries have also been cooperating successfully in the areas of security, environment protection, human rights protection, science and education, expansion of cultural ties, and tourism exchange.
The upcoming visit of President Mirziyoyev to Germany follows the exchange of views on the implementation of agreements and the current international agenda between him and the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, during their online summit in March 2021. The visit is expected to give a powerful impetus to the development of a bilateral partnership.
The partnership between the two countries is best illustrated by the indicators in the areas of investment and trade, where Germany has traditionally been Uzbekistan’s key partner. Over the past five years, the two countries bilateral trade has increased by 24%, with mutual trade growth exceeding 51% in 2022, while Uzbek exports to Germany increased by 21%.
Uzbekistan has 219 companies with German investments, including 97 individual enterprises, with leading German manufacturers such as “Deutsche Kabel”, “Knauf”, “Claas”, “Papenburg”, and “Falk Porsche” represented in the Uzbek market.
Uzbekistan and Germany cooperation in various fields
The Intergovernmental Working Group on Investment and Trade and the Uzbek-German Business Council, established in 2015, are fully promoting economic, trade, and investment cooperation. The Roadmap for the implementation of investment projects totaling around 400 million euros was adopted during the last meeting of the German-Uzbek Business Council in Tashkent in July 2022, attended by over 100 representatives of leading German companies.
The Seventh Meeting of the Council, held in Berlin on February 28, 2023, was attended by over 60 representatives of leading German companies and resulted in the adoption of a comprehensive roadmap for the implementation of the agreements reached.
The German support for political and socio-economic reforms in Uzbekistan has also been evidenced by the growing volumes of technical and financial assistance provided in areas such as water management and agriculture, development of the legal system, education, healthcare, and trade. Education is an important area of bilateral cooperation, with over 300,000 schoolchildren in Uzbekistan studying German and 19,000 students learning the language in-depth. More than 4,000 students of Uzbek doctoral and postgraduate candidates study in various universities in Germany.
The visit of President Mirziyoyev to Germany is expected to further enhance the bilateral cooperation between the two nations and promote regional infrastructure projects in transport and energy. The regular political consultations between the foreign ministries of Germany and Uzbekistan and the partnership between the Konrad Adenauer and Friedrich Ebert foundations, the Foundation for International Legal Cooperation at the Ministry of Justice of Germany, and the German Society for International Cooperation are also expected to play a vital role in strengthening the partnership between the two nations.
The upcoming visit of President Mirziyoyev to Germany is expected to further solidify the long-term perspective of the partnership between Uzbekistan and Germany, bringing more opportunities for both nations to explore new areas of cooperation and mutual benefit.
