05/04/2024 (Agence Europe) – On Friday 5 April, the European Commissioner for Trade, Valdis Dombrovskis, and the Uzbek Minister for Investment, Industry and Trade, Laziz Kudratov, signed a memorandum of understanding on critical raw materials, paving the way for a strategic partnership in this area. The partnership should focus on the integration of sustainable value chains, the resilience of supply chains, but also the mobilisation of funds for infrastructure projects, for example. This is the 11th memorandum of understanding of this type that the EU has signed in 3 years. It is seeking to secure and diversify its sources of critical raw materials and to promote sustainability in the extraction, processing and recycling of these products. (LM)