Cooperation and innovation: An interview with Minister Ibrokhim Y. Abdurakhmonov and Professor Jinghua Cao

4C principles proposed by Prof. George Fu Gao, viz cooperation/collaboration, competition, communication, and coordination, are a stimulus for scientific progress and social development. The basis of scientific research lies in collaboration, with multiple platforms established to support this, from the small scale within labs and individual institutions to the international level. In this dialogue, the recipient of the 2023 VCANBIO Award for International Cooperation Life Sciences and Medicine, Minister Ibrokhim Yulchievich Abdurakhmonov (Minister of Agriculture for Uzbekistan, former Minister of Innovative Development, 2017–2022, and former Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation in 2022), discusses both the importance of multilateral communication and collaboration, as well as outlines his vision for furthering Uzbek-Chinese cooperation. Having made many outstanding contributions to the field of modern life and bioscience, Minister Abdurakhmonov has also become a prominent example of the success and close collaboration resulting from the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). His team helped in line with Chinese scientists pioneering the clinical trails to develop a protein subunit vaccine for COVID-19 that was approved for use in both Uzbekistan and China. Here, he talks with Dr. Qun Yan, head of the hLife Editorial Office, in a joint discussion with Prof. Jinghua Cao, the outgoing Executive Director of the Alliance of National and International Science Organisations (ANSO) for the Belt and Road Regions, who played a crucial role in bridging the vaccine cooperation between China and Uzbekistan.