Prime Minister Narendra Modi received a warm and personal welcome from Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev after arriving in capital Tashkent on Saturday for a two-day state visit.From the airport, the two leaders travelled together by car to the presidential palace, marking the latest instance of PM Modi sharing a car ride with a world leader. They held a dinner meeting at the presidential palace.During the visit, the first leg of the prime minister’s two-nation tour, PM Modi will hold delegation-level talks with the Uzbek president to further strengthen the strategic partnership between the two countries.The discussions will cover cooperation in trade and investment, defence, digital connectivity, energy, education and people-to-people ties, while also setting the agenda for future bilateral engagement.In his departure statement, PM Modi noted that the India-Uzbekistan Strategic Partnership had witnessed “significant advancement” in recent years.“I look forward to my discussions with President Mirziyoyev on further deepening our cooperation in trade and investment, digital connectivity, defence, energy, and on advancing our shared visions of Viksit Bharat and Yangi Uzbekistan,” he wrote on X.The visit marks his fourth trip to Uzbekistan since taking office. He previously visited the country in 2015, 2016 and 2022.From Tashkent, PM Modi will travel to Bishkek at the invitation of Kyrgyz President Sadyr Zhaparov to attend the 26th Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit, which will mark 25 years of the organisation.
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PM Modi’s ‘car’ diplomacy
PM Modi first “carpooled” with a world leader during his 2014 visit to the United States, when he shared a car ride with then-US President Barack Obama.However, since last year, car rides with world leaders have become a recurring feature of what has been described as the prime minister’s “informal diplomacy.”In September last year, during his visit to China for the SCO Summit, PM Modi travelled in the same car as Vladimir Putin, reciprocating the gesture months later when the Russian president visited New Delhi in December.Since then, he has shared car rides with world leaders including French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.