President Shavkat Mirziyoyev congratulated Volodymyr Zelensky on his landslide victory in the presidential elections in Ukraine, the Uzbekistan Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.

April 23--At an event today in Andijan, Gary Robbins, United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Uzbekistan Country Director and Dr. Abduaziz Abduvasikov, Rector of the Andijan Branch of Tashkent State Agrarian University (TSAU) opened a new orchard and drip irrigation demonstration site, established with the support of USAID’s Agricultural Value Chains (AVC) project.  TSAU professors and students will use this site to conduct research and studies in fruit production and smart irrigation practices.

Uzbekistan has come to an agreement with the countries of Central Asia on water quotas for the 2019 season through Syrdarya and Amudarya river basins, the Uzbek Ministry of Water Management said.

The president signed the Additional Measures in to Enhance guarantees of Children’s Rights Decree introducing the Children’s Ombudsman in Uzbekistan, the Ministry of Justice said.

The branch of the South Korean Kyung-in Women’s University will open in Tashkent as of 2019-2020 academic year, Uztekstilsanoat (Uz Textile Industry) said.

The President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has accepted the invitation of the Chinese President Xi Jinping and will visit China on a working visit on April 24-27 to attend the second Belt and Road Forum, the presidential press service said.

To help boost local governance, ownership, and cooperation over shared water resources between upstream and downstream countries in Central Asia, today the United Statesfacilitated a second joint meeting of the Uzbek and Kygyz Padshaota River Small Basin Councils in Namangan, Uzbekistan.   The meeting was organized with assistance from the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Smart Waters project, implemented by the Regional Environmental Center for Central Asia (CAREC), to enhance regional cooperation over shared water resources.

The American John Deere and the state-owned company Uztekstilsanoat (Uz Textile Industry) signed a contract for supply of agricultural machineries to Uzbekistan, Uztextilsanoat said.

For the first time, the Uzbek military will participate in tank biathlon competitions of the V International Army Games (ARMI-2019) on August 3–17, the Defence Ministry said.

The Uzbekistan government delegation led by Deputy PM Elyor Ganiev on April 16-17 visited the United States on a working visit, the Foreign Ministry.

The capsule-laying ceremony for the construction project of Hyundai Motor Uz Namangan plant was held Friday in Namangan’s Turakurgan district, Namangan Haqiqati (Truth) newspaper said.

Draft joint decree has been published on the portal for assessing the impact of legal norms, which proposes to scrap the List of jobs with unfavorable working conditions, where women are only partly, or not allowed to work at all.

President Moon Jae-in yesterday visited Inha University’s campus in Tashkent to see Uzbek and Korean medical teams jointly demonstrating telemedicine. 

On April 16, the regular plenary session of the Legislative Chamber, during which the MPs approved the draft Public-Private Partnership Bill conceptually in the first reading.

After the negotiations, the Presidents Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Moon Jae-in signed a Joint Declaration on Special Strategic Partnership between the Republic of Uzbekistan and the Republic of Korea and oversaw the signing of bilateral accrods.

After the official welcoming ceremony, President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev and President of the Republic of Korea Moon Jae-in held talks in narrow and expanded formats.

The Information and Mass Media Agency under the President Administration responded to the statement by OSCE Media Freedom Representative, Harlem Desir in which he called on the authorities in Uzbekistan to end the blocking of media outlets and urged to undertake reforms of the media laws and regulations.

The President of the Republic of Korea, Moon Jae-in today arrived in Uzbekistan on a state visit, the presidential press service said.

Uzbekistan Airways announced it would launch twice a week regular flights to Jakarta as of May 1, with a stopover in Kuala Lumpur once a week.

Uzbekistan has left the black zone climbing 5 places to 160th among 180 countries in the 2019 World Press Freedom Index compiled by the International Organisation Reporters Without Borders (RSF).