Belarus and Uzbekistan have taken a further step in their relationship with the signing of the Khiva Declaration.
From Khiva, a historic Silk Road center that hosted major inter-parliamentary and business forums, the Belarusian delegation intends to return with a substantial package of commercial contracts covering industrial cooperation, trade, medicine, education and tourism.
The two countries are pushing trade toward the $2 billion mark set by their leaders. Turnover is already up 34 percent in the first half of the year.
“It is of fundamental importance that Belarus–Uzbekistan engagement at the highest and high level is substantive and produces results. Meetings of our heads of state set clear guidelines, form political will and define priorities that are then consistently implemented by governments, parliaments, ministries and agencies,” said Natalya Kochanova, chair of the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of Belarus.
The forum’s theme was not accidental, she said. “Parliamentary diplomacy is an important part of interstate relations. It helps us understand each other’s positions, find common solutions and remove possible barriers.”
The business forum presented projects and initiatives from ministries, agencies, industry associations and women entrepreneurs of both countries.
Elena Prokhorova, chair of the joint entrepreneurs’ organization of the Belarusian Women’s Union, said localization in Uzbekistan matters because it opens routes to European markets and to markets that are closed to Belarus by sanctions. “Many businesses look at Uzbekistan as a place to carry out projects and scale westward.”
Participants discussed cooperation in electronics, robotics, light industry and woodworking, as well as export-finance tools for bilateral projects, with an emphasis on labor and stable production chains.
Alexander Ogorodnikov, Belarus’s ambassador to Uzbekistan, said the strategic partnership now puts more weight on regions. “The fact that memorandums turn into road maps with specific points of cooperation, and that commercial contracts appear — and are extended over time — shows that we are developing very actively.”
More than 100 Belarusian and Uzbek companies showed export goods at a 500-square-meter national exhibition in Khiva, including women’s businesses, IT and medical products. Olga Soldatenko, deputy director general of Integral, said several direct-cooperation agreements and further memorandums had been signed and that medical devices should find demand on Uzbekistan’s large market.
In the Khiva Declaration, the two parliaments pledge to strengthen their dialogue and to help remove legal obstacles to joint initiatives.