India and Uzbekistan | 04 Nov 2019

The Defence Minister of India attended the 18^th meeting of the Council of Heads of Government (CHG) of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) on 2^nd November, 2019 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
The meeting was the third CHG meeting after India became a full member of the SCO in 2017.
- SCO is a permanent intergovernmental international organisation that was created in 2001.
- Its one of the objectives is to strengthen mutual trust and neighbourliness among the member states.
- At present, it has eight member states. Its Secretariat is located in Beijing, China.

Common Challenges: To work together to defeat challenges like terrorism, climate change, endemic poverty, and inequality.
Multilateralism: India is committed to a transparent, rules-based, open, inclusive and non-discriminatory multilateral trading system with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) at its centre.
Disater Management:
- India invited SCO Member states to join the ‘Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure’.
- India will soon hold Joint Urban Earthquake Search and Rescue exercise of SCO member States along with SCO Expert level meeting on disaster prevention.
Security Cooperation: Emphasis on the importance of SCO joint military exercise ‘CENTER 2019’.
India will host the meeting of Council of Heads of Government in 2020.

The defence minister of India also held bilateral consultations with the defence minister of Uzbekistan.
Three memorandums of understanding (MoU) were signed to enhance cooperation in military medicine and military education.
India affirmed its commitment to develop a state-of-the-art Information Technology (IT) complex in Armed Forces Academy of Uzbekistan for the benefit of the soldiers.
Both the Defence Ministers presided over the innauguration of the first India-Uzbekistan Joint Exercise, “Dustlik 2019”.
- This bilateral exercise will be conducted from 4^th-13^th November, 2019 at Chirchiq Training Area near Tashkent and will focus on counter-terrorism.

Areas of Cooperation: Uzbekistan and India have signed Agreements and MoUs in areas such as trade, investment, education, civil aviation, tourism, science & technology and agriculture.
Economic Ties: Bilateral relations are managed through an lntergovernmental Commission, which oversees trade and economic relations.
Cultural Relations:
- There is a close affinity between the cultures of the two countries.
- lndian films, actors and songs are extremely popular across Uzbekistan.
- After the first major co-production of Alibaba aur Chalis Chor in 1980, lndo-Uzbek jointly produced film 'Hoichoi Unlimited' premiered in Uzbekistan on 31^st March 2019.
- The Lal Bahadur Shastri Centre for lndian Culture teaches Hindi, Yoga and Kathak and holds cultural performances across
  Uzbekistan.