TASHKENT, April 28. /TASS/. Russia is ready to help Uzbekistan join the World Trade Organization (WTO), Russian Minister Maksim Reshetnikov told a forum on Friday.
"We welcome this in every possible way and are ready to promote Uzbekistan’s WTO accession," he said, adding that this process would help create a basis for Uzbekistan to integrate the republic.
Uzbekistan began the process of joining the WTO in 1994, when it was granted observer status in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. In 1998, a working group was created to negotiate the republic’s accession in the organization, but several years later the process was frozen and it was only resumed in 2020. Since 1998, the working group has met five times to discuss the republic’s joining the WTO.