Dear soldiers and sergeants, officers and generals, veterans of the Armed Forces!

I congratulate you, all the fellow countrymen who have devoted themselves to the noble cause of a defender of Homeland o?n the remarkable event in the life of the country ? the Day of Defenders of Homeland and the fifteenth anniversary of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

For over the past 15 years an enormous work by both its scale and depth has been carried out in Uzbekistan o?n building the armed forces that meet the modern requirements and standards, forming the national army ? a reliable guarantor of independence, security and territorial integrity, and sustainable and advancing democratic development of the country.

On the basis of the adopted Concept of national security, comprehensive analysis of the rapidly changing social and political situation, emerging threats and challenges in the Central Asian region the long-term program o?n reforming the army has been formed based o?n the absolutely new principles of building and organizing the Armed Forces. The main goal that we have set before us is creation of the not-big-in-size, modern, mobile, well armed army capable to effectively resolve the strategic and tactical tasks, neutralize and deservedly repulse any encroachments upon the inviolability of our borders, peace and stability in the country.

During the implementation of these most important and responsible tasks in the shortest period of time the military districts and border regions were established, the staff and deployment of formations and units of the Armed Forces have been reviewed which united into a powerful system the subdivisions and units of the Ministry of Defense, border troops, military formations of other ministries and bodies. Besides, the integral system of their interaction and coordination has been established.

The Joint Staff of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Uzbekistan was established and successfully operates, which is called upon to become a ?brain? of the training, operative and strategic management and planning, as well as organization of the combat application of troops.

The unprecedented principally new organizational and staff structure of the Armed Forces and their main combat subdivisions were introduced. The squads, companies, regiments, auxiliary stations of management and other low effective elements have been liquidated. This has allowed to cardinally reconstruct the vertical of the army building and its units, raise their mobility, operative functioning and firing capabilities, and what is the most important ? to ensure the independence and responsibility of commanders of all levels.

The subdivisions of Special Operation Forces were established o?n the most important operative directions. The special system of training of these subdivisions, equipment with modern types of weapons make them a powerful tool capable to give a vivid repulse any aggressive aspirations of a potential enemy. This has been proved by the experience of operations to terminate the bandit groups of international terrorists which had penetrated the mountainous areas of the Surkhandarya, Kashkadarya, and Tashkent provinces.

The cutting the term of conscription to the military service to o?ne year, changing the quality of staff, order of recruitment, combatant equipment of troops, introduction of the mobilization conscription reserve service, and practical completion of transferring to contract-based military service have in principle changed the profile, essence, content and combat capabilities of our army.

The sergeant training schools have been established and equipped with the latest training basis. These schools have played a decisive role in professional training, strengthening the healthy psychological environment, and radical increasing the fighting potential of the Armed Forces. It should be specially noted that at the moment the sergeant staff is becoming a major backbone of our army, instructor of soldiers, and reliable assistant to officers.

The officer cadres training system, established over the years of independence, aimed at ensuring the high professionalism of commanders of all levels and stimulating their comprehensive intellectual development have radically changed their quality of a staff, and allows to recruit to the Armed Forces the trained and progressively thinking commanding staff which meets the high requirements of our times.

At the moment the service in the Armed Forces of the country without exaggeration becomes not o?nly a constitutional duty of a citizen of Uzbekistan, but also o?ne of the prestigious professions in the country. The evidence for this is a fact that over the last years the recruitment to the Armed Forces of active duty military men is mainly held o?n the contest basis. The young men who join the army not o?nly acquire the military subjects, but also our children physically and spiritually grow up there. Their character and firm life position, as well as the readiness to defend the Homeland mature in the army.

Much has been done for over these years in the sphere of military and technical cooperation with the foreign countries, and firstly, with the Russian Federation, strengthening the material and technical basis of troops, improving the material, social and daily life conditions for the military men and their families. Yet over the last years the amount of payments for the active duty military men, sergeant and officer staff have been increased almost twofold.

Summarizing the aforesaid, today we have all grounds to say with a profound satisfaction that Uzbekistan at the moment practically has modern, sufficiently equipped national army, which is not big in size, capable to withstand the territorial integrity, inviolability of borders, stability of the country, peace and tranquility of our people.

Dear countrymen!

We live in a complex time. The persistent tension in the region of Central Asia, continuing conflicts and standoffs in the whole world, the growing scales of terrorism, extremism and drug aggression do raise our serious concern.

All of this obliges each and everyone who is not indifferent to the destiny of the country and its future to maintain vigilance, strengthen the combat readiness of our Armed Forces, increase the reliability of defense of the State border, mobilize for this purpose our reserves and capabilities. In this context I believe it is necessary:

First, to continue and deepen the initiated systemic work o?n analyzing the modern challenges and threats to the security, reveal the trends and possible consequences of their development in middle and long term prospects, critically approach to the assessment of readiness of our Armed Forces, adequately and effectively withstand any encroachments upon the security and stability of the country.

Second, to pay a special attention to further improvement of equipping the troops with the latest weaponry and technology, high-precision weaponry, electronic and computer systems of control and communication, reliable equipment and individual means of defense ? eventually secure the high level of fighting capability and maneuverability, mobility and self-sufficiency of formations and units, firstly, of counter- terrorist subdivisions.

Third, to increase the efficiency of military training system and level of skills of personnel, ensure the high discipline of military men, improvement of their practical abilities to skillfully wield the entrusted modern arms and technology. It is necessary to actively introduce the methods of modeling and simulation, other contemporary methods of training which are to ensure the high level of individual and group training, as well as the intellectual development of military men.

The most important task of commanders of all levels is to further improve the educational work in the army, strengthen the sense of high responsibility for the destiny of the country in the minds of each military man, bring up the high moral and spiritual qualities in them, active life position and patriotism.

The annual traditional contest for the title of the best o?n the profession in the nominations of ?the best sergeant?, ?the best group commander?, ?the best platoon commander?, ?the best battalion commander? is of a profound mobilizing significance to increase the level of combat training and the quality of educational work of the military men.

The main goal of all this work is to create in the Armed Forces the atmosphere of competitiveness in maintaining the high level of combat readiness and professionalism, military discipline, develop the leadership abilities in the servicemen, form the healthy spiritual and moral environment in the troops.

I believe that this practice of holding of all-army contests should be comprehensively supported and expanded. It is necessary to thoroughly improve the system of incentives for servicemen that participate in this contest: to confer the upper military ranks ahead of the term o?n the winners, increase the amount of material award for them, establish the additional privileges for them to enter the military educational institutions.

Fourth, it is necessary to continue the work o?n further optimization of staff and improvement of the organizational-staff structure of troops, and the system of management of the Armed Forces. Here the most important objective is to raise the mobility and combat readiness of formations and units as o?ne of the decisive conditions for achieving success in the modern theaters of military operations.

Fifth, the most important task for the state and our society must become a further strengthening of the purposeful work o?n the social protection of the military men and their families, providing them with accommodation, improving their living conditions and medical care.

This objective acquires a special significance not o?nly because 2007 has been declared as the Year of Social Protection. The significance of this task is conditioned by the fact that, above all, in modern conditions o?nly the well trained, strong, thoroughly equipped and socially secured Armed Forces can become a solid support and reliable guarantor of security and stability, inviolability of borders and integrity of the country, and eventually the tranquility and peace of people.

We must never forget this truth.

Once again I heartily congratulate all of you o?n the Day of Defenders of Homeland, fifteenth anniversary of the Armed Forces of Uzbekistan. I wish you all a strong health, happiness and well-being in personal life, strength and energy, big successes in the military service.

Islam Karimov, President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Supreme Commander-in-Chief of Armed Forces