Uzbekistan President to visit India

New Delhi, Sep 28 :  Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev will arrive here on Sunday on a two-day visit, the External Affairs Ministry said on Friday.

He will be accompanied by a high-level delegation in what will be his first visit to India since assuming office in 2016.

Mirziyoyev and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold restricted and delegation-level talks on October 1, a Ministry statement said.

The two leaders had met on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Qingdao, China, in June and also at last year's SCO Summit in Astana, Kazakhstan, when India was made a full member of the Eurasian inter-governmental organisation. 

President Ram Nath Kovind will host a banquet for his Uzbek counterpart.

Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will also call on him.

Stating that relations between India and Uzbekistan have traditionally been close and cordial, the statement said: "Since 2011, the two countries have elevated their relations to the level of strategic partnership encompassing cooperation in a wide spectrum of areas including political, economic, education, health, human resource development, defence, counter-terrorism, science and technology, culture and tourism." 

It added that Mirziyoyev's visit will provide an opportunity to discuss bilateral, regional and multilateral issues of mutual interest and reinforce the strategic partnership between India and Uzbekistan.

Earlier this week, senior Uzbek officials said the Central Asian nation wants to further elevate its ties with India and take bilateral trade to $1 billion within two years.

Briefing the media here, Uzbek Ambassador to India Farhod Arziev said that during the visit, a meeting of the Uzbek-Indian Business Forum will be held.

Ilhomjom Nematov, Ambassador of Special Assignments and Special Envoy of the President of Uzbekistan, said that both countries are trying to take bilateral trade from the current level of around $350 million to $1 billion by 2020.

Arziev said that the two countries were working on more transport corridors to boost trade after India joined the Ashgabat Agreement, which seeks to establish an international transport and transit corridor between Iran, Oman, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.