Senator Richard Lugar (Republican, Indiana), chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told journalists in Tashkent on 19 August that he has discussed cooperation between the United States and Uzbekistan in health care and in developing agriculture and small business during his meetings with President Islam Karimov and Foreign Minister Sodik Safaev in Samarkand that day. Lugar added that $14 million is being given to Uzbek virologists to develop treatments for various infectious diseases, and $10 million has been approved under the Nunn-Lugar program for reducing the threat of the proliferation of nuclear and biological weapons. (uzreport.com)