Uzbekistan emerges as key player in solving global political problems: Ambassador Vitaliy Fen

Ambassador of Uzbekistan to Korea Vitaliy Fen, right, poses with The Korea Times President and Publisher Oh Young-jin at the ambassador's residence, Feb. 19. Courtesy of Embassy of Uzbekistan in Korea

By Kwon Mee-yoo

Vitaliy Fen, Ambassador of Uzbekistan to Korea, said that Uzbekistan has entered a new stage of development as the country has been implementing large-scale reforms across all areas, receiving global recognition.

“Today, when people talk about our country in the international arena, the phrase 'New Uzbekistan' is often mentioned,” said Fen during an interview with Oh Young-jin, president and publisher of The Korea Times, at the embassy in Seoul, Feb. 19.

“It would not be an exaggeration to say that this is a recognition of the progress that we have made over the past six or seven years, and we have reached a completely new stage of development.”

The reforms implemented at the initiative of the President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev are stimulating the opening of our country to the whole world. The world, in its turn, is also turning to Uzbekistan.

“At the basis of these reforms, first of all, there are priority tasks such as creating a comfortable lifestyle for our people, enhancing the image of New Uzbekistan in the world community. Most importantly, the wide-ranging reforms implemented in our country are to ensure and protect people's interests, making the quality of their life higher, more convenient and satisfactory,” he said.

In 2017-2021, based on the implementation of the Strategy of Actions on the five priority directions of the development of the Republic of Uzbekistan, significant progress was made in fundamentally renewing the political, legal, socio-economic, spiritual and educational life of our country.

As a logical continuation of this, the Development Strategy of New Uzbekistan for 2022-2026 was adopted. In this conceptual document, in order to ensure the integrity and continuity of reforms, the principle "From the Strategy of Actions to the Strategy of Development" was taken as the main idea and main criterion.

In the center of the Strategy of Development, is, first of all, the human values and interests. In other words, the state is doing a lot of practical work to ensure the rights and freedoms and legal interests of every citizen living in Uzbekistan. In particular, the Constitutional reforms that started in our country last year are a vivid example of this.

More than 220,000 suggestions received from citizens during the constitutional reform process, as well as suggestions made by deputies and experts, were analyzed and reflected in the constitutional draft law. In this process, priority was given to the issue of human rights and human dignity. As a result, the provisions on human rights and freedoms have almost doubled.

Most importantly, the principles of "man-society-state" and "Uzbekistan-social state" are sealed as a constitutional rule in our Constitution, which is being renewed under the conditions of New Uzbekistan. The fact that the draft of constitutional law includes additional norms aimed at strengthening the social protection system for the population is particularly noteworthy as it corresponds to the principle that "Uzbekistan is a social state.”

In particular, a new article was introduced, which stipulates the duties of the state to protect citizens from unemployment and take measures to reduce poverty. In addition, according to this article, the state organizes and encourages the professional training and retraining of citizens to ensure their employment. In addition, it is important that the protection of persons with disabilities is strengthened.

Most importantly, everyone sees and feels such changes in their daily life. In future reforms, it is aimed to improve these achieved results and create additional conditions for people.

“I would like to emphasize one more aspect. As a result of the long-term pragmatic policy of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, the reputation of our country in the international arena has been greatly strengthened during such short period. Due to bold reforms, creative approaches, unexpected decisions and drastic steps, Uzbekistan's foreign policy has won the recognition of the world community. Our mutually beneficial relations with foreign countries have expanded sharply, and a positive image of our country has been formed on the world scale,” Fen said.

In recent years, Uzbekistan has hosted many meaningful regional and international conferences. Just one example, in 2022, the summits of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the Organization of Turkic States and dozens of high-level international conferences were held in Uzbekistan, and important initiatives were put forward by the head of Uzbekistan at these conferences. All this indicates that the international influence of our country is increasing more and more.

In addition, the fact that the leader of our country has been promoting a number of initiatives from the United Nations and other international platforms, and that these initiatives are being accepted unanimously, indicates that the president is promoting urgent issues that are of concern not only to Uzbekistan or Central Asia, but to the entire world community.

In a word, today Uzbekistan is becoming one of the centers of solving global problems in world politics, and the international community widely recognizes this.

One of the main tasks of Uzbekistan's foreign policy is to create an atmosphere of peace, stability and security around its territory. In this context, President Mirziyoyev defined the development and strengthening of friendly, close neighborly and mutually beneficial relations with Central Asian countries as the main priority foreign policy direction.

As a result of the support of the initiatives of the head of Uzbekistan by the leaders of the neighboring countries, political dialogue and mutual trust in Central Asia have been strengthened, consultation meetings of the heads of state have been established. As a result, the level of bilateral and multilateral cooperation in the region has risen to a new level.

“It should be noted here that cooperation with South Korea has a special place in Uzbekistan's foreign policy. We can say that a new era of mutually beneficial cooperation has begun as a result of the rapid development of relations between Uzbekistan and the Republic of Korea in all aspects in recent years,” Ambassador Fen said.

“Our countries are reliable strategic partners that have passed the test of time. In particular, since the establishment of our diplomatic relations, 18 high-level meetings have been held between the heads of state of both sides. At each of these meetings, the parties reached important agreements on the development of mutual relations in all areas.”

Today, there is no sphere or direction in which the two countries have not established cooperation. Uzbekistan and South Korea have been cooperating effectively not only politically and economically, but also in the fields of information technology, digital medicine, education, science, and culture.

“The Korean education model is one of the most exemplary experiences in the world. It is for this reason that the preschool education system of our country was completely reformed based on the advanced experience and knowledge of our partners in Korea,” Fen said.

As a result of the increase in preschool enrollment from 27 percent to 70 percent over the past six years, nearly 2 million children are now attending kindergarten. These reforms were also highly recognized at the UNESCO World Conference on Early Childhood Care and Education in Tashkent in November last year.

It is important to develop innovative cooperation between the universities of the two countries. Therefore, in order to create a permanent space for their regular communication, it is planned to hold a forum of rectors of higher education institutions of the two countries in Tashkent this year.

Interestingly, until 2016, there was only a branch of Inha University in Uzbekistan. Today, not only Inha, but also Bucheon and Ajou universities, Yeoju Technical Institute have opened their branches in Uzbekistan. The Korean International University has started operating in Ferghana. From January of this year, the Korean College of Technology and Culture was established at the Samarkand International University of Technology.

Today, six higher education institutions are operating in Uzbekistan in cooperation with South Korea, which shows the level of our cooperation in this direction.

Moreover, taking into account that 2023 has been declared as the "The Year of Caring for People and Quality Education" in Uzbekistan, it can be seen that our relations in the field of education will gain relevance in the future.

“Our cultural relations are also becoming more active year by year. In particular, I would like to emphasize that the opening of the statue of the great Uzbek poet and thinker Alisher Navoi in South Korea in December 2021 was a huge historical event in the spiritual life of both nations. In order to further strengthen our relations in this direction, practical work is being carried out to install the statue of King Sejong, the founder of the Korean alphabet ― Hangeul ― in the Seoul Park in Tashkent,” Fen said.

“I think that the erection of the statues of these two great thinkers in the capitals of friendly and brotherly countries will serve to bring the cultural relations between Uzbekistan and South Korea to a qualitatively new level.”

The ambassador said, “In conclusion, as a result of high-level dialogues and common aspirations, the cooperation of our countries is consistently developing in all directions. Of course, in relations with any country, the regularity of high-level meetings is important for consistent development and deepening of cooperation. Special attention is always paid to this aspect in Uzbekistan-South Korea relations. I hope this tradition will continue this year. This, in turn, is of great importance in bringing our relations to a qualitatively new level.”