Islam Karimov Congratulates Prime Minister of Japan

His Excellency
Mr Yoshihiko Noda,
Prime Minister of Japan

Your Excellency,

Please accept my sincere congratulations and heartfelt wishes on the occasion of twentieth anniversary of diplomatic relations between the Republic of Uzbekistan and Japan.

The interaction between Uzbekistan and Japan has ages-old roots that go back to the Great Silk Road, and history has preserved numerous unique facts of humanitarian and trade exchange, of interpenetration of our cultures, traditions and customs.

I would like to stress with a sense of immense delight that our times also have been distinct with vigorous growth and intensive expansion of longer-term and comprehensive bilateral relations, a logical and the most critical phase of which has come to be the Joint Declaration on Friendship, Strategic Partnership and Cooperation signed in 2002.

We highly value the considerable support and assistance provided by Japan, one of the leading global powers, in the making of independent Uzbekistan, primarily in the implementation of major vitally important programs in economic, investment and social spheres. We regard Japanese businesses, leading banking organizations and development institutions as reliable partners one can count on. 

The Uzbek delegation’s official visit to Japan in February 2011 demonstrated again the shared aspiration to inspirit a new dynamics to the open and prolific political dialogue, including that in the “Central Asia plus Japan” format, to the practical efforts toward enhancing the mutually gainful strategic partnership. The visit also underlined the concurrence and proximity of approaches by the two sides to current issues in regional and international politics.

Particularly noteworthy have been the activities of Uzbek-Japanese and Japanese-Uzbek committees for economic cooperation, the agencies that constitute a solid institutional backbone of interaction in this key area. The forthcoming joint work toward effective materialization of remarkable normative base of relations also deserves special consideration.

I am convinced that, building on the common values and longer-term interests shared by our two countries, the traditionally friendly bilateral ties will continue to press forward in every way possible for the good of the peoples of Uzbekistan and Japan.

Taking this pleasant opportunity, I wish a robust health and every success to You, and peace and prosperity to the people of Japan.

Sincerely,

Islam KARIMOV,
President of the Republic of Uzbekistan

(Source: Press Service of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan)