International conference on Afghanistan on the theme "Peace process, security cooperation and regional connectivity"

On March 27, 2018, the international high-level conference on Afghanistan "Peace process, security cooperation and regional connectivity" was held in Tashkent, the capital of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

The Presidents of Uzbekistan and Afghanistan, the Foreign Ministers of Russia, Turkey, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, the State Minister for External Affairs of India, the Deputy Foreign Ministers of Turkmenistan, China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United States, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations on Afghanistan Tadamichi Yamamoto, Head of the UN Regional Center for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia Natalia German, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and security policy Federica Mogerini, special representatives for Afghanistan and Pakistan of Britain, Germany, Italy, special adviser to the Japanese Foreign Ministry, special envoy of the Foreign Ministry of Qatar. Representatives of delegations from international organizations also took part.

In his speech, the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan touched upon the importance of the international transport corridor "Uzbekistan-Turkmenistan-Iran-Oman", and the President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan noted the important role of the "Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India" gas pipeline project.

The agenda of the conference included not only the political, diplomatic and financial-economic issues of the reconstruction of Afghanistan, but also the fight against such international and regional threats as terrorism, radicalism and extremism, the current state of security in Afghanistan and the mechanism of interaction of the Central Asian countries with Afghanistan.

 During the conference, an exchange of views took place on the joint efforts of the European Union, the countries of Central Asia and Afghanistan in the fight against terrorism and extremism. Following the results of the international conference, the Tashkent Declaration was adopted.

Within the framework of the international conference on Afghanistan, a regular meeting of foreign ministers of the countries of the "European Union - Central Asia" format took place. During the meeting, prospects for economic development of the region, as well as issues of interregional cooperation in trade-economic, scientific, investment-technological and educational spheres were discussed.