The Festival of Friendship of the Turkmen and Uzbek Peoples opens in the Turkmen city of Dashoguz, located near the border of Turkmenistan with Uzbekistan, on November 16, which will be attended by musical and theater groups, eminent cultural and art figures of the two states.

Vice-Premier Mahrijemal Mammedova said at a Government meeting on November 11 that the festival will include a friendship concert of masters of arts of the two countries, creative meetings, performances, joint exhibitions of decorative and applied arts, film screenings of Turkmen and Uzbek films.

President Serdar Berdimuhamedov, expressing confidence that the upcoming creative action will serve to strengthen fruitful Turkmen-Uzbek relations based on the primordial traditions of friendship and good neighborliness and meeting the interests of the two peoples, ordered to ensure a high level of organization and holding of the festival.

At present, the last preparations for the creative forum are underway in the northern region of the country. The opening ceremony of the festival is planned in the complex Türkmeniń ak öýi (“White Yurt of Turkmens”), designed for mass events of national and international significance. Festival events will also be held in the Dashoguz velayat Library, the Nurmuhammed Andalib State Musical and Drama Theater of the Dashoguz velayat, as well as in one of the modern rural Houses of Culture.

As part of the campaign, a representative delegation of over a hundred people will arrive in Dashoguz from a neighboring state. A cultural program has been prepared for guests from Uzbekistan, which includes a visit to the famous monuments of ancient Oriental architecture in the Kunyaurgench State Historical and Cultural Reserve.

We remind that for the first time the Turkmen-Uzbek friendship festival was held in Dashoguz in October 2010, and in November 2017, the closing ceremony of the Days of Culture of Uzbekistan in Turkmenistan was held here.

The development of friendship relations and fruitful business contacts between the northern region of Turkmenistan and Uzbek neighbors is facilitated by the Agreement between the hyakimlik of the Dashoguz velayat (region) and the administration of the Horezm region of the Republic of Uzbekistan on cooperation in trade, economic, cultural and humanitarian spheres, signed in March 2017.