Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks at a ceremony to present Russian Foreign Ministry badges of honour to Uzbekistan’s deputy foreign ministers Anvar Nasyrov and Saidikram Niyazkhodjaev on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Uzbekistan on the sidelines of the CIS Council of Foreign Ministers’ meeting, Tashkent, April 7, 2017

Mr Kamilov,

Colleagues!

Today, we have carried out very good, useful work within the framework of the CIS Council of Foreign Ministers. In my opinion, it is quite symbolic that this meeting took place right after the state visit to Russia by the President of Uzbekistan. I regard the bilateral talks and today’s multilateral event as one of the most successful that have taken place recently. At least, all issues that had to be addressed during the Moscow summit and during today’s ministerial meeting in Tashkent have been successfully resolved.

We constantly feel our Uzbek friends’ desire to deepen our strategic partnership and allied relations and we want to reciprocate. This course has once again been confirmed by our presidents.

Today, I would like to praise the contribution made by the two deputy foreign ministers of the Republic of Uzbekistan concerning our cooperation. I would like to present our ministry badges of honour for promoting cooperation to Anvar Nasyrov, who greeted us, and to Saidikram Niyazkhodjaev.