Tajikistan President began state visit to Uzbekistan today morning.  At Tashkent International Airport, Rahmon was met by his Uzbek counterpart Shavkat Mirziyoyev.  

A number of high-ranking Tajik state officials are accompanying President Rahmon on his visit to Uzbekistan.  The delegation members also include representatives of the Tajik business community and cultural figures, according to the Tajik president’s official website.  

The visit is expected to result in signing of twenty-thee new cooperation documents, including an agreement strategic partnership between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan and an agreement on completion of delimitation and demarcation of the mutual border.  

Uzbekistan National News Agency says that following the negotiations, the two sides will adopt a Joint Statement of the Heads of States, sign a Strategic Partnership Agreement, a number of interstate, intergovernmental, interdepartmental documents aimed at enhancing interaction between the two countries in various fields, strengthening traditional brotherly ties between Uzbekistan and Tajikistan people.

The program of the visit of the President of Tajikistan to Uzbekistan also includes meetings with the Speaker of the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis Nurdinjon Ismoilov, Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov, and visit to the city of Samarkand.

The two nations have accumulated many problems after collapse of the Soviet Union.  These problems caused the countries' relations to go into a deep freeze two decades ago, including disputes over water and borders.  The two countries had had the worst bilateral relations in Central Asia.  With the election of Shavkat Mirziyoyev as President of Uzbekistan Uzbek-Tajik relations, as well as relations between Uzbekistan and its neighbors in Central Asia, reached a new era of potential.  Mirziyoyev and Emomali Rahmon have met several times since September 2016, and in March 2018, Mirziyoyev made an historic visit to Dushanbe, where 27 bilateral agreements were signed in the fields of trade, economy, investment, finance, transport and transit, agriculture, water and energy, taxes, customs, tourism, education and science, health, culture, interregional cooperation, in the field of security and countering crime.