The delegation led by Luke Devigne, Deputy Managing Director for Europe and Central Asia at the European External Action Service (EEAS), held a series of meetings in Tashkent as a preparation for the "EU-Central Asia" Conference on Sustainable Interconnection and the Ministerial Meeting.
On July 15, at the press conference dedicated to his visit, Mr Devigne expressed his opinion on the organizational work being carried out on the admission of Uzbekistan to the World Trade Organization, "Daryo" correspondent reports.
"Uzbekistan has been outside this investment framework for many years. There are several issues regarding bilateral cooperation, including Uzbekistan's entry into the organization within the framework of the agreement on the expansion of cooperation. We have financed a number of activities in the process of technical negotiations. And thus, we have helped in technical matters. We hope that the process will be completed soon and Uzbekistan will join the World Trade Organization. If you pay attention, the countries that are not members of the organization are economically underdeveloped countries. Except for the countries that do not have problems with natural oil and gas, of course," said Mr Luc Devigne.
A ministerial meeting of the EU and Central Asia and the first EU regional conference on interaction with Central Asia will be held in November.
The Samarkand conference on sustainable interaction with Central Asia will be the first regional conference on interaction within the framework of the new strategy of the EU called "Global Gateway" adopted in December 2021. This will provide a platform for internal-external interregional dialogue on common concepts that contribute to the realization of the goals of stability, development and regional cooperation contained in the EU strategy for Central Asia. This will be a part of the EU's efforts to help the Central Asian countries to modernize, encourage investments, assist in digitization, and diversify intra-regional trade and transport, and trade routes.
At the annual "EU-Central Asia" ministerial-level meeting, the foreign ministers of the five Central Asian countries, as well as the High Representative of the European Union for foreign affairs and security policy - the vice-chairman of the European Commission, Joseph Borrell, and for international cooperation EU Commissioner Jutta Urpilainen will be present, which, in turn, will allow for discussion of cooperation between the EU and Central Asia.
In November 2021, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, in a conversation with the Secretary General of the World Customs Organization, Kunio Mikuriyani, stated that it is necessary to cooperate closely on issues related to Uzbekistan's entry into the World Trade Organization as soon as possible. was kidded.
The republic's WTO membership process began in July 2019, when Uzbekistan submitted for review the updated memorandum on the foreign trade regime for membership in this organization. Continuation of the process of Uzbekistan's WTO membership was defined by Shavkat Mirziyoyev as one of the priority directions of development in the country's trade and economic sphere in the Action Strategy of Uzbekistan for 2017-2021.
In his address to the Oliy Majlis on December 29, 2020, Shavkat Mirziyoyev emphasized the need to actively work on the issue of WTO membership in 2021.
On October 26, 2021, Sardar Umurzakov discussed the issue of Uzbekistan's membership in the organization with the leadership of the WTO. The leadership of the organization stated that it is ready to fully support the republic in the process of becoming a member of the WTO.
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