Uzbekistan, Tashkent, April 16 / Trend D. Azizov /
Uzbekistan and Australia have expressed mutual interest in intensifying the comprehensive cooperation during the second round of political consultations between foreign ministries of the countries last week, the Uzbek foreign ministry said today.
The sides discussed the current state and prospects of bilateral cooperation and exchanged the views on urgent international and regional issues.
Special attention was paid to the expansion of trade-economic and investment ties, primarily, the attraction of Australia's modern technologies and experience in agriculture, energy-saving technologies and equipment production for the engineering, mining, automotive industries, as well as the implementation of the projects in the free industrial economic zone "Navoi".
At present, about 10 companies with the Australian capital operate in Uzbekistan. The representative offices of "Rio Tinto" company and "Worley Parsons" engineering center were opened in 2011.
Further intensification of inter-parliamentary ties, cooperation in the cultural sphere, tourism, education and research will raise the Uzbek-Australian relations to a qualitatively new level.