Uzbekistan president arrives for state visit

Uzbekistan’s President Shavkat Mirziyoyev and his wife Ziroatkhon Hoshimova review an honor guard after arriving at Seoul Airport in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, Wednesday, for a four-day state visit. Mirziyoyev and Korean President Moon Jae-in will hold a summit Thursday. / Courtesy of Korea Culture and Information Service

By Kim Rahn

Uzbekistan’s President Shavkat Mirziyoyev arrived in South Korea Wednesday for a four-day state visit.

It is Mirziyoyev’s first visit to South Korea since taking office last December, and second state guest for the Moon Jae-in government which took power in May, following U.S. President Donald Trump who was here earlier this month.

He arrived at Seoul Airport in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, and was greeted by Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon there. An official welcoming ceremony will be held at Cheong Wa Dae Thursday when he begins his official schedule.

South Korea and Uzbekistan have formed friendly relations; Uzbekistan became independent from the Soviet Union in 1991, and it formed diplomatic ties with South Korea the next year, with this year marking the 25th anniversary of the bilateral relationship.

South Korean and Uzbek leaders’ visits to each country have been frequent: Mirziyoyev’s predecessor, the late Islam Karimov, visited South Korea eight times, and former South Korean presidents have visited the Central Asian country five times.

In the morning on the second day of his visit today, Mirziyoyev will take part in the opening ceremony of a South Korea-Uzbekistan business forum. “Uzbekistan has abundant natural resources and economic capabilities, and the potential for economic cooperation and development with us is high,” said Nam Gwan-pyo, deputy chief of the National Security Office.

Nam said 460 South Korean companies do business in the Central Asian country, adding the country has high demand for produce distribution and storage, hospitals and infrastructure construction.

“Mirziyoyev is paying attention to improving the quality of people’s lives, such as medical care, public health and service sectors. So there will be room for South Korean companies to make inroads into these sectors of the country,” Nam said.

Mirziyoyev will then offer flowers at a memorial tower in Seoul National Cemetery.

In the afternoon, he will receive a welcoming ceremony at Cheong Wa Dae and have bilateral talks with Moon.

“Moon and Mirziyoyev will review the two nations’ 25-year-old strategic partnership and talk about ways to bolster practical cooperation for future-oriented relations,” Nam said.

After the summit, the two leaders will have a signing ceremony for eight memorandums of understanding in various economic and social fields, including cooperation in finance and electronic trading, sharing of economic development experience, South Korea’s support for Uzbekistan’s joining of the World Trade Organization, and exchanges between the countries’ justice and foreign ministries.

A state dinner will be provided in the evening for the Uzbek president and first lady Ziroatkhon Hoshimova, with performances by South Korean singers planned.

On the third day of his visit Friday, Mirziyoyev will meet Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon and receive honorary Seoul citizenship. Park visited Uzbekistan earlier in July and met Rakhmonbek Usmanov, the mayor of Uzbek capital Tashkent, Seoul‘s sister city.

The president will also have a meeting with Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon to discuss more details about boosting cooperation between the two nations.

The Uzbek president initially planned to deliver a speech at the National Assembly but canceled it to show respect for his predecessor who never did so. But he will meet Assembly Speaker Chung Sye-kyun and political party leaders as scheduled.

Mirziyoyev will leave the country Saturday.

Nam said Uzbekistan is the center of Central Asian countries, a strategic point geopolitically and geo-economically.

The country also supports South Korea’s policy on North Korea’s nuclear threats, Nam said. “Uzbekistan led denuclearization move in Central Asia, having a huge desire for a world without nuclear weapons. It also shut down North Korea’s embassy there last year in protest of the North’s nuclear tests; it actively supports Seoul in dealing with Pyongyang’s nuclear issue.”

Uzbekistan is also a friendly multicultural nation. Among about 500,000 Goryeoin, or ethnic Koreans who resettled in the Central Asian region 80 years ago, 180,000 are living in Uzbekistan. “Many Goryeoins in Uzbekistan are having successful lives there, with some holding ranking official titles including ministers, lawmakers and public organization heads,” Nam said.

There are about 2,500 Korean residents in Uzbekistan, and nearly 55,000 Uzbeks in South Korea.