TASHKENT, April 26. /TASS/. The trade turnover between Russia and Uzbekistan may reach $12 bln this year, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov told reporters.

"About $10 bln [last year]. As regards this year, we are already seeing incremental growth. I believe we will approach $12 bln unless some cataclysmic events occur," the official said.

Manturov also underscored the need to bolster industrial cooperation and develop joint production facilities. "Definitely," he replied to a question about whether the two countries’ governments had plans to establish new JVs. "This is what constitutes the fundamental contribution to [our] trade and economic relations," he noted. "Close collaborative ties always translate into stability and guarantee a mutual flow of deliveries [of goods]," Manturov emphasized.

The geopolitical situation has only strengthened cooperation with Russia, Jamshid Khodjaev, Deputy Prime Minister of Uzbekistan, said in turn. "If you ask whether the geopolitical situation has had an impact on our [joint] projects, I would say, yes, in the sense of spurring greater interaction," the official noted.

"This provides a greater impetus for the fostering of joint engineering self-sufficiency," Manturov added.