Israel’s Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked and the adviser to the Uzbek prime minister, Kharidin Khardinov, signed July 27 a bilateral agreement, which will regulate the recruiting and bringing into Israel of Uzbek nursing staff. Representatives of the Israel Population and Immigration Authority, Israel’s Foreign Ministry and Ministry of Welfare and Social Affairs, and a large official Uzbek delegation were also present at the signature ceremony.

“Today I signed a bilateral agreement with the representatives of the Uzbek government that will bring great news to the nursing industry. Thanks to this agreement, our dear ones who need nursing care will be assisted by skilled caregivers, who will provide dedicated and appropriate care,” said Shaked after signing.

Zehavit Ben-Hillel was appointed Israel’s new ambassador to Uzbekistan in July 2020. Since then, she has been working hard to expand and deepen bilateral relations, with several achievements. Expert in public diplomacy and passionate about history, Ben-Hillel has crisscrossed Uzbekistan, initiating cooperation and encounters not only between governments and industries, but also between social societies.

“We definitively see bilateral relations growing and being upgraded. This week, an agreement was signed regulating the employment in Israel of nursing staff from Uzbekistan. It is a major achievement for both countries — for Uzbekistan, which is interested in sending migrant workers to Israel, and, of course, for Israel, which needs quality personnel in the field of nursing and welfare. We hope that the success of the cooperation in the field of employment of nursing staff will lead to its expansion to other fields of employment in the future,” Ben-Hillel told Al-Monitor.