Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu visited Uzbekistan on 14-16 July 2021 to participate in the “Central and South Asia: Regional Connectivity, Opportunities and Challenges” Conference in Tashkent and to hold bilaterals.

On the first day of the program, Minister Çavuşoğlu visited together with Minister of Culture Azadbek Nazarbekov and Deputy Minister of Tourism and Sports Ulugbek Azamov of Uzbekistan, the Fergana region of Uzbekistan, our ancestral homeland with an ancient civilization and fertile lands, and Kokand, the Tourism Capital of the Turkic World.

Later that day, Minister Çavuşoğlu also met with Ahisha Turks in Kokand and noted that we were proud of our Ahiska brothers and sisters everywhere.

On July 15 2021, Minister Çavuşoğlu attended the 15 July Democracy and National Unity Day Commemoration Ceremony held at the Turkish Embassy in Tashkent, and stated that, in Uzbekistan, together with our citizens, he commemorated our martyrs with prayers and our veterans with gratitude, as it was done in all of our 252 missions all over the world.

Later that day, Minister Çavuşoğlu exchanged views on the Afghan peace process and regional developments with Special Representative Zalmay Halilzad of U.S for Afghanistan.

Then, Minister Çavuşoğlu discussed the efforts for lasting peace in Afghanistan with President Asgraf Ghani and Foreign Minister Haneef Atmar of Afghanistan and underlined that our support to friendly and brotherly Afghanistan would continue.

Finally, Minister Çavuşoğlu had a fruitful meeting with First Deputy Prime Minister Nikolay Snopkov of Belarus, and expressed that we would develop our relations on the basis of mutual benefit.

On 16 July 2021, Minister Çavuşoğlu attended the “Central and South Asia: Regional Connectivity, Opportunities and Challenges” Conference. In his speech, he reminded that Central Asia was an area of great power competition in the past, that we should not let it fall back into that, and stressed that the region needed an interconnected ecosystem and the only way for that was to promote regional cooperation through enhanced connectivity.

Later, Minister Çavuşoğlu met with Foreign Minister Wang Yi of People’s Republic of China and expressed that they followed up on the issues discussed during our Presidents’ recent phone conversation.

Then, Minister Çavuşoğlu held a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Shahin Mustafayev of Azerbaijan, where they discussed our relations and evaluated regional developments.

On the same day, Minister Çavuşoğlu met with his Kuwaiti counterpart Shiekh Dr. Ahmed Nasser Al-Mohammed Al-Sabah and stressed that we would further develop our cooperation in tourism, culture, health and defence industry.

Later that day, Minister Çavuşoğlu had a fruitful meeting with Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan of Saudi Arabia.

Finally, Minister Çavuşoğlu was received by President Shavkat Mirziyoyev of Uzbekistan, and noted that our cooperation with friendly and brotherly Uzbekistan was developing in every field.