Uzbekistan and Japan have agreed on a new portfolio of cooperation projects worth more than $12 billion (€11 billion), following talks in Tokyo during President Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s official visit ahead of the C5 plus Japan summit.
President Shavkat Mirziyoyev held negotiations in Tokyo with Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, focusing on further deepening the Uzbek-Japanese strategic partnership.
The talks covered political dialogue, trade and investment, energy, infrastructure, healthcare, tourism and humanitarian exchange. Plans to establish a special economic zone in the Samarkand region based on Japanese standards have also been discussed. The leaders supported scaling up the “One Village, One Product” programme and expanding interregional cooperation.
Following the talks, the two sides signed a Joint Statement on an expanded strategic partnership for future generations, along with a broad package of agreements covering education, healthcare, ecology, transport, urban planning, agriculture and disaster risk reduction.
The trip also reinforces decades of cultural and educational links, including thousands of Uzbek specialists trained in Japan and hundreds of students supported through Japanese scholarship programs.
During the talks, both sides emphasised the deep cultural and personal ties between the two nations, and Mirziyoyev invited Emperor Naruhito to pay an official visit to Uzbekistan.
More than 3,000 Uzbek specialists have completed internships in Japan, while over 440 Uzbek students have received higher education through Japanese scholarship programmes. Japanese language courses are currently taught at seven universities in Uzbekistan.
On Saturday, December 20th, President Mirziyoyev met with Japan’s Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Yohei Matsumoto, the head of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Tsuyoshi Sugino, and leaders of leading Japanese universities, including the University of Tsukuba, Nagoya University, Tottori University and Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology.
The discussions focused on cooperation in higher education, research and innovation, with particular attention to artificial intelligence, digital technologies, agriculture and water management, green energy, seismology and smart city development. New agreements were signed, including an intergovernmental accord on higher education and a memorandum on establishing a joint university in Uzbekistan in partnership with the University of Tsukuba.
Source: euronews