German Chancellor Olaf Scholtz visited Uzbekistan as part of his first visit to Central Asia. What is the purpose of the visit and what agreements were reached?

At the invitation of Shavkat Mirziyoyev, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz paid an official visit to Uzbekistan on September 15. President Shavkat Mirziyoyev welcomed the German chancellor at Registan Square.

In the congress center in Samarkand, Shavkat Mirziyoev and Olaf Scholz held talks in a narrow circle with the participation of delegations.

The parties expressed their support for continuing active relations between parliaments, governments, and ministries of foreign affairs.

Foreign policy agencies were instructed to consider the issue of increasing the level of Uzbek-German relations, to hold regular consultations on international and regional problems, including the situation in Afghanistan.

It was noted that a strategic partnership program for industry and technology was prepared for the summit. Cooperation projects with a total value of about 9 billion euros are being developed with leading German companies and banks.

They cover "green" energy, chemical industry, exploitation of critical raw materials, machine building, textile industry, production of building materials and many other areas.

For example, the construction of steam-gas power plants in the territories of Uzbekistan with Siemens Energy, the construction of a "methanol island" with Linde Group and the production of "green" ammonia, the development of a large copper mine with the participation of KfW Ipex-Bank, copper mining with Giga Fiber and production of cable products, carbon fiber with AMK Global, carbon black and hydrogen production with Guesscon and many other projects were noted as the most important projects.

There are a number of new projects on localization of pumping systems, renewable energy, production of medical supplies, and organization of logistics centers.

Shavkat Mirziyoyev proposed to consider resuming direct flights of the Lufthansa airline to Uzbekistan.

At the end of the negotiations, Shavkat Mirziyoev and Olaf Scholtz accepted the Joint Declaration.

During the official visit, 8 bilateral documents were signed, including:

Intergovernmental Agreement on Comprehensive Partnership on Migration and Mobility;

Intergovernmental declaration on cooperation in the field of veterinary medicine and animal husbandry;

Intergovernmental declaration on cooperation in the field of sustainable use of water resources within the framework of the "Green Central Asia" initiative;

Joint Declaration on Cooperation in the Field of Critical Minerals;

Agreement on cooperation in the field of transport;

Memorandum on cooperation in the field of climate change within the framework of the Paris Agreement.

In addition, the Technological partnership and industrial cooperation program for 2024-2026 was adopted, as well as a number of agreements and contracts were concluded at the level of leading enterprises of Uzbekistan and Germany.

For information, in 2023, the volume of trade has exceeded 1 billion euros. Cooperation with German business is expanding - since the beginning of 2024, 800 million euros of German companies have been invested in the economy of Uzbekistan.

According to Reuters, Olaf Scholz's first visit to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan is related to Berlin's search for new markets, energy and minerals after the war in Ukraine.