On May 13, Tashkent hosted a meeting between the Special Representative of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan for Foreign Policy Abdulaziz Kamilov, Director of the Institute for Strategic and Regional Studies (ISRS) Eldor Aripov and Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism Vladimir Voronkov.

Mr. Vladimir Voronkov visits Uzbekistan as part of the First Meeting of the Central Asia Regional Expert Council on rehabilitation and reintegration of returnees from armed conflict zones, to be held on May 14 this year.

The parties discussed issues of Uzbekistan’s cooperation with the UN in detail, exchanged views on the upcoming event, and considered the main areas of collaboration between ISRS and the UNOCT.

Mr. Voronkov expressed gratitude to President Shavkat Mirziyoyev for his personal attention and political support for the regular dialogue with the UNOCT. He emphasized that in recent years, Uzbekistan has been actively cooperating with specialized UN structures on combating terrorism and extremism and participating in the fundamental universal legal documents in this area.

The interlocutors focused on the importance of the Regional Expert Council in Central Asia for the first time on the rehabilitation and reintegration of returnees. It was noted that the event demonstrates the achieved high level of consolidation of the Central Asian states and willingness to jointly bear joint responsibility for ensuring peace and security in the region.

It was emphasized that the event's outcome would be the adoption of a Roadmap for cooperation between Uzbekistan and the UNOCT for 2024-2025. This document allows bilateral practical cooperation to reach a qualitatively new level.

The roadmap provides for the organization of joint trainings and conferences and provides the Uzbek side with technical, advisory, and financial assistance in all aspects of countering terrorist threats.

Following the meeting, the interlocutors expressed interest in further maintaining a dialogue to find new promising areas of cooperation of mutual interest.

UzA