Eldor Aripov, Director of ISRS believes that it is very important that Uzbekistan’s voice would be represented in the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA).

All leading countries of Asia participate in the activities of the CICA. During a press conference at the Agency for Information and Mass Communications, he said that ignoring this structure can lead to ignoring of our interests, which is unacceptable. Uzbekistan’s position on all important issues of regional development should be taken into account”.

In support of his words, he cited situation in the international arena, which was mentioned by the President of Uzbekistan in his speech at the CICA. The head of state stressed that the modern system of international relations is characterized by growing instability and unpredictability.

Most importantly, there is a crisis of confidence and clashes of interests and competition between world centers of power are becoming tougher. Tensions remain in Syria, fighting continues in Yemen, and the situation around Iran, which borders with some countries of our region,is deteriorating.

Eldor Aripov also emphasized that “problems with confidence are very familiar for us. Most recently, the situation in Central Asia looked different. We had many problems that had not been resolved for decades. Today, we have signed treaties  with Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan on the delimitation of the borders. As a result the situation has been normalized”.

According to him, in 2018 the number of violations at the Uzbek-Kyrgyz border decreased by 65% compared with 2017. Regional trade is actively booming. At the end of last year, Uzbekistan’s trade with the countries of Central Asia grew by 50%.

 “But the main achievement is that we were able to strengthen mutual confidence with our neighbors. This is the great merit of our president’s foreign policy. All parties recognized this fact not only in the region, but far beyond it”, he said.