OREANDA-NEWS. October 07, 2011. Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Foreign Affairs of Uzbekistan Elyor Ganiev participated at the Annual US-Uzbek Business Forum in Washington, the United States.

The event was organized by the American-Uzbek Chamber of Commerce at the support of such companies as Honeywell, General Electric, General Motors, Lockheed Martin, Hilton, Merck, Caterpillar, Case New Holland, Rio Tinto.

Representatives of the US Administration, business and academic circles, the US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Robert Blake, Deputy Assistant Secretary Susan M. Elliott, Senior Policy Advisor of the US Department of Commerce Danica R. Starks and others participated at the event.

During the session, Robert Blake said that the US are intending to strengthen bilateral cooperation with Uzbekistan on wide-range of issues, including trade and investments.

He said that Obama Administration made its priority to expand interaction with Uzbekistan on all directions of bilateral relations.

“Uzbekistan is our strong partner on Afghanistan and we open such new directions of cooperation as science and technology, strengthening role of women in society. We also work on strengthening rule of law and democracy in Uzbekistan. Expansion of trade and investment is also one of main priorities,” he added.

The Uzbek delegation also held meetings with the US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Special Envoy of the USA to Afganistan and Pakistan Mark Grossman, as well as head of the US companies. The sides exchanged opinion on political, trade-economic and investment cooperation.

According to the State Statistics Committee of Uzbekistan, trade turnover between Uzbekistan and the United States grew from US0.3 million in January-June 2010 to US1.5 million in the same period of 2011.

At the same time, exports of Uzbekistan to the US increased from US.3 million in the first half of 2010 to US.4 million and imports from US million to US.1 million.