Uzbekistan puts forward new initiatives within the OTS
President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev, speaking on October 30 at the 13th summit of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS) in Ankara, stated the need to strengthen the OTS as a platform of mutual trust and practical partnership amid changes in international relations, intensifying geopolitical competition and ongoing armed conflicts.
The head of Uzbekistan presented a number of initiatives aimed at expanding economic, transport, legal and humanitarian cooperation among the member states of the organization.
In particular, he proposed launching cooperation with third countries in the "OTS plus" format, which provides for holding meetings of sectoral ministers. According to him, such contacts should be focused on preparing specific joint projects in trade, transport, investment and other priority areas.
One of the key initiatives was the "Turkic World – 100" program, which envisages the implementation of one hundred joint investment and industrial projects.
Among the priority areas named were the processing of rare and strategic minerals, the localization of equipment production for green energy and the output of products with high added value.
It is proposed to attract the resources of the Turkic Investment Fund and international financial institutions to finance the projects.
In order to protect the interests of entrepreneurs, Mirziyoyev advocated the development of a multilateral treaty on mutual legal assistance in commercial matters. The document should create a legal basis for the mutual recognition and enforcement of court decisions. It was also proposed to form a digital platform for exchanging requests for legal assistance and the relevant documents.
The president paid special attention to the development of transport infrastructure. He proposed creating a Network of Logistics Complexes of Turkic States with joint management in order to unite the Middle Corridor and related transport routes into a single economic system.
In the tourism sphere, the head of Uzbekistan came forward with the initiative to create a Turkic Tourism Alliance, which will jointly promote the historical cities, natural attractions and cultural heritage of the organization's countries.
In addition, it was proposed to prepare a multilateral agreement on simplifying mutual travel for citizens, including expanding the use of ID cards when crossing borders.
As part of educational cooperation, Uzbekistan expressed its readiness to annually provide 200 grants to representatives of Turkic states under the "Yangi Oʻzbekiston" scholarship program.
Mirziyoyev also supported declaring 2027 the Year of Nature Protection within the OTS. He proposed creating a "Dictionary of Common Turkic Words," including in it vocabulary understandable to representatives of all Turkic peoples.
During the summit, the president of Uzbekistan thanked the countries of the organization for supporting the candidacy of the republic's representative Mirvokhid Azimov for the post of secretary general of the OTS. He also stated Uzbekistan's readiness to host the organization's next summit in 2027.
Source: UzDaily
