Türkiye, Uzbekistan to hold security summit

ANKARA

Türkiye and Uzbekistan will hold a security summit with the participation of foreign and interior ministers as well as intelligence chiefs, Turkish diplomatic sources have informed.

This meeting which will focus on security, migration and counterterrorism issues will mark a first in Turkish-Uzbekistan ties, according to the sources.

In this frame, a senior delegation that includes Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya and National Intelligence Organization (MİT) chief İbrahim Kalın will visit Uzbekistan on Sept. 12.

They will meet with their counterparts while Fidan will be received by Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev and hold a bilateral meeting with his counterpart, Bakhtiyor Saidov.

Sources recalled that the ties between the two nations in all relevant fields have visibly improved under the leadership of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Mirziyoyev. This included security cooperation and institutional dialogue between foreign and interior ministries as well as intelligence services.

During the talks, the two countries’ officials will review the current state of political ties, economic cooperation and security, the sources said, underlining Türkiye’s wishes for a more institutional relationship with the central Asian country.

Türkiye and Uzbekistan had garnered the high-level strategic council in June 2004 and agreed to improve ties in economy, defense industry, energy, transportation, culture, education, irregular migration and terrorism. A total of 18 agreements were signed during the council meeting chaired by Erdoğan and Mirziyoyev.

The two delegations will discuss all these issues in talks in Uzbekistan.

They will also elaborate on the regional developments and cooperation in the context of international organizations, particularly the Organization of Turkic States.