Vucic: I am hoping for strategic partnership between Serbia, Uzbekistan

TASHKENT - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Tuesday in Tashkent, at a meeting with Uzbek counterpart Shavkat Mirziyoyev, that he expected that their encounter would have an enormous impact on development and progress of bilateral relations in all areas as well as that Serbia's cooperation with Uzbekistan would be raised to the level of strategic partnership.

"Esteemed Mr President, dear friend, first of all, I want to express great gratitude for your hospitality and warm welcome and to congratulate you on successfully hosting the UNESCO General Conference in Samarkand, which is an enormous and unprecedented success for Uzbekistan, as well as for you personally. We hope that Uzbekistan will present itself at the EXPO 2027 in Belgrade," Vucic said during a meeting of Serbian and Uzbek delegations.

He noted that he was proud of the two countries' joint declaration, as well as of many other documents that created a solid foundation and favourable conditions for future cooperation.

"Serbia perceives the people of Uzbekistan as brotherly and friendly people and we already look forward to your future visit to Belgrade and we hope that we will raise the level of our relations to that of a strategic partnership," Vucic said.

He added that he admired the results achieved by Uzbekistan and its president's work, efforts, dedication and commitment.

"Those are exceptional results. If course, few people admit that openly nowadays, but I am a political veteran, I have been president for many years now and I can say that freely," Vucic noted.

When someone succeeds in raising the GDP from 30 bln to 135 bln, you can only take off your hat and admire that, Vucic said.

When the jobless rate is reduced from 42 pct to 5.5 pct, there is nothing to add to that, he said.

Vucic said he believed Mirziyoyev visit to Belgrade would be one of his most successful trips to a European city.

"Meanwhile, I hope we will carry out many concrete projects and establish the closest possible cooperation between Belgrade and Tashkent. We have achieved much success in the economic sphere, but we cannot even compare to your pace of growth. I congratulate you on every success, esteemed Mr President," Vucic said.

"We will do everything that is possible to create the best conditions for the closest cooperation between Serbia and Uzbekistan. I want to reiterate that we feel at home here, and I hope you will feel the same in Belgrade," he said.