May 23 this year experts from Institute for Strategic and Regional Studies under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan hosted a meeting at the Academy of the Armed Forces with a group of attendees from the UK Royal College of Defense Studies, including representatives of Australia, Kuwait, Nepal, New Zealand, Oman, Pakistan, Japan and other countries.

The military institution is one of the oldest British academic institutions that train specialists for the military, diplomatic and other public service in the field of national defense and international security.

During the meeting experts discussed strengthening regional cooperation in Central Asia and Uzbekistan's role in these processes, as well as prospects for stabilizing the situation in Afghanistan.

The British guests were briefed on Uzbekistan's position on deepening cooperation in the region and ensuring sustainable development and stability in Central Asia, as well as on topical issues on the international agenda.

In particular, First Deputy Director of ISRS Akromjon Nematov noted that the situation in Central Asia has changed dramatically since 2016. Thanks to joint efforts, a fundamentally new political atmosphere has been created in the region, aimed at building confidence and rapprochement.

In this context, it was particularly noted that the main priority of the foreign policy activities of the Republic of Uzbekistan is the region of Central Asia. The principles guiding our country are proactive dialogue, equality, consideration of interests, and reasonable compromise.

A striking example of a new level of relations in the region is the establishment of the Consultative Meetings of the Heads of State of Central Asia. New formats of regional cooperation began to function actively - an inter-parliamentary forum, an economic forum, a forum of women leaders.

New forms of economic cooperation - investment funds, border trade and industrial zones, industrial cooperation projects - made it possible to increase the number of joint ventures by five times from 2016 to 2022, and intra-regional trade grew 4 times - from $5.5 billion to $20 billion

During the conversation with the British guests, ISRS experts also focused on the fact that today Uzbekistan is in the process of implementing important and difficult reforms related to the renewal of society and the state, further strengthening the rights and freedoms of the individual, and increasing the responsibility of the state for the provision and development of civil society.

In this regard, A. Nematov dwelled on certain aspects of the constitutional reform carried out, as well as priority areas of the Development Strategy of New Uzbekistan for 2022-2026.

In turn, the head of the British delegation, S. Dainton, said that their visit to Uzbekistan took place within the framework of the postgraduate education program in the field of international strategic studies. According to him, before arriving in Uzbekistan, a group of students visited Georgia and Kazakhstan, where they also discussed regional security and stability issues with leading think tanks and expert circles.

At the end of the meeting, both sides expressed willingness to continue cooperation between the analytical and academic communities of Uzbekistan and Great Britain in areas of mutual interest.