Tajik President Emomali Rahmon Thursday morning started a two-day official visit to Uzbekistan.  Tajik leader is reportedly paying this visit to Uzbekistan at invitation of Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev.

According to the Tajik president’s official website, First Deputy Prime Minister, Presidential Adviser for Foreign Affairs, Foreign Minister, Minister of Energy and Water Resources, Minister of Agriculture, Minister of Transport, Minister of Industry and New Technologies, Minister of Culture, Head of the State Committee on Investment and State-owned Property Management, Head of the National Bank of Tajikistan, President of the National Academy of Sciences, Head of the Tajik Railways Company, Tojikmatloubot (Consumer Cooperatives' Union) Head, Sughd Province Governor and some other officials are accompanying the president on his visit to Uzbekistan.         

Upon landing at Tashkent International Airport, Emomali Rahmon was met by his Uzbek counterpart Shavkat Mirziyoyev.  

The Uzbek president’s press service says the presidents had a brief conversation.  Tajik leader then   

The leader of Tajikistan visited New Uzbekistan Park, where he laid flowers at the Independence Monument.

While in Tashkent, Rahmon is scheduled to hold talks with Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev  and some other high-ranking Uzbek state officials.

Besides, representatives of business communities of the two countries will meet and a business forum will be held during Tajik president’s visit to Uzbekistan.     

The leaders will hold talks to address further development and strengthening of bilateral relations, expansion of cooperation in priority areas.

Relations between the countries have become warmer after Shavkat Mirziyoyev came to power in Uzbekistan in 2016.  Mirziyoyev has said that improving ties with Central Asian nations is a major priority of Uzbekistan’s foreign policy.

Emomali Rahmon and Shavkat Mirziyoyev 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.

Earlier in April 2018, Uzbekistan's national airline resumed flights from Tashkent to Dushanbe after a hiatus of some 25 years.  The air communication between Dushanbe and Tashkent was cut off in 1992 at Tashkent’s initiative and the issue of resumption of the direct air communication between the two countries has been raised at meetings between state officials of the two countries more than once.

27 bilateral governmental agreements addressing bilateral cooperation between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan in industry, education, border security, agriculture and much else were signed during President’s Rahmon’s state visit to Uzbekistan in August 2018.  36 other cooperation agreements were signed between the two countries in Dushanbe on June 10, 20221 during an official visit of Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev to Tajikistan. 

It is to be noted that the bilateral trade between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan has increased 37 times over the past six years.

In 2021, the two-way trade between the two countries valued at 447.8 million U.S. dollars, which is 114 million U.S. dollars or 34.2 percent more than in 2020.

Meanwhile, over the first four months of this year, the bilateral trade between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan has valued at 173.6 million U.S. dollars, which is 40.5 million U.S. dollars or 30.4 percent more than in the same period last year.          

Tajik parliament on March 30 endorsed the protocol on making amendments to the government-to-government agreement between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan on mutual travels of citizens of the two countries of March 9, 2018.    The amendments concern the term of stay of Tajikistanis in the neighboring country.

Under paragraph 3 added to the government-to-government agreement on mutual travels of citizens, the term of stay of Tajiks in Uzbekistan is extended from three to ten days.

Meanwhile, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan in 2018 agreed to visa-free travel between the two countries.  The new border regulations allow Tajik and Uzbek citizens to visit each others’ countries without visas for up to 30 days.

As it had been reported earlier, Tajikistan reopened all border crossing points (BCPs) along its common border with Uzbekistan on March 15, 2022.