S. Korean president to visit Samarkand to highlight friendship with Uzbekistan

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TASHKENT. KAZINFORM - South Korean President Moon Jae-in was set to visit Uzbekistan's historic city of Samarkand Saturday, highlighting his country's long friendship with the Central Asian nation that he says dates back to the era of the Silk Road, Yonhap reports.

Moon's trip to the city comes one day after he and Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev agreed to upgrade the countries' relationship to a "special strategic partnership" in their bilateral summit here.

Seoul and Tashkent established diplomatic ties in 1992. Their relationship was upgraded to a strategic partnership in 2006.

Moon says the friendship between the two countries dates back hundreds of years when they were connected by the ancient network of trade routes, the Silk Road.

"Uzbekistan's development is South Korea's development. South Korea will gladly share its experience of economic development with Uzbekistan," Moon said in an address to the Uzbek parliament Friday.

Samarkand is one of the oldest cities in Uzbekistan and Central Asia. It is known to have been frequented by merchants from countries in the region, including ancient Korean dynasties.

The South Korean president arrived in Uzbekistan Thursday on a four-day state visit.

Moon will wrap up his visit to the country on Sunday to head for Kazakhstan, the third and last stop in his three-nation tour that earlier took him to Turkmenistan.

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