EU and Uzbekistan agreed to deepen their cooperation in the energy field by promoting the effective implementation of the bilateral Memorandum of understanding on energy.
On 17 March, EU and Uzbekistan held their eleventh Cooperation Council and the Council announced that both parties seek to deepen their cooperation across a number of areas. Besides the agreement to deepen energy cooperation, the two sides also agreed to establish a Joint Business and Investments Council, aiming to promote EU trade and investments in the Central Asian country. Uzbekistan is primarily known for exporting natural gas while it also exports gold, ferrous and nonferrous metals, textiles, food products, and machinery. EU also reiterated its support for Uzbekistan's plan to accede to the World Trade Organisation.
Moreover, the EU welcomed Uzbekistan's readiness to discuss about human rights with the EU in an increasingly open fashion within the Human Rights Dialogue. According to the press release, the EU strongly encouraged Uzbekistan to step up its cooperation with the United Nations towards developing a National Action Plan on Human rights. The European officials also welcomed the renewed cooperation between Uzbekistan and the International Labour Organisation (ILO), welcoming the positive findings by ILO on child labour during the cotton harvest of 2013. Still, the EU called the national authorities in Uzbekistan to address all outstanding labour issues pertaining to the ILO conventions.
Cooperation Council also called all Central Asian partners to seek sustainable solutions regarding water management, security and energy issues in the region, by taking into account the interests of all countries.