On February 19, 2025, Kuiling Ding, President of Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), welcomed H.E. Mr. Farhod Arziev, Ambassador of Uzbekistan to China, and his delegation to the university’s Minhang Campus. Vice President Weidong Liu also attended the meeting.

President Ding warmly welcomed Ambassador Arziev and provided an overview of SJTU’s history and development, describing the university as having been "born for strength, prospered through reform, and flourished due to talent." He also highlighted the university's recent efforts to strengthen educational cooperation with Central Asian countries, emphasizing the long-standing friendship and partnership between China and Uzbekistan. He noted that the Silk Road has long served as a bridge of goodwill between the two nations.

The year 2024 marks the 30th anniversary of friendly relations between Shanghai and Tashkent, with both sides signing a new round of cooperation memorandums. Ding stressed the importance of higher education collaboration in increasing academic standards, cultivating talent, and driving socioeconomic development. Looking ahead to the future, he also expressed that the two sides could cooperate in fundamental research, talent development, and research commercialization in the field of higher education, and welcomed more outstanding young scholars from Uzbekistan to visit and study at SJTU.

Ambassador Arziev expressed his great honor in visiting SJTU and praised the university’s achievements in student training and scientific research. He spoke of Uzbekistan’s historical role as a cultural and economic hub in Central Asia, noting the Latin term for algorithm, a core concept in modern computer science, originates from the name of Al-Khwarizmi, the renowned mathematician often referred to as the “father of algebra”.

The ambassador also highlighted Uzbekistan’s youthful demographic—60% of its population is under the age of 30. This statistic brings many opportunities for economic development and social progress, which includes improving education quality, employment opportunities, and public services. Additionally, he reaffirmed Uzbekistan’s commitment to advancing practical collaboration in higher education.

In the future, Ambassador Arziev hopes to further promote cooperation in higher education between the two nations and strengthen strategic cooperation between the two institutions. He hopes for more expanded faculty and student exchanges in fields such as engineering, agriculture, and renewable energy, as well as the development of joint research projects, dual degree programs, and other initiatives with SJTU.