Tashkent vows to help promote peace in Afghanistan

KABUL.

Tashkent will host a two-day international conference on March 26-27 in a bid to jumpstart the Afghan-owned, Afghan-led process for national reconciliation.

"Initiating the Tashkent Conference, Uzbekistan by no means intends to confine itself to arranging it as a one-off event, the foreign ministry said in a statement.

Uzbekistan would continue with vigorous efforts, both bilaterally and multilaterally, to promote a peaceful political process in Afghanistan, the ministry added.

The Central Asian state desired to create a new venue for peace talks between the government of Afghanistan and the Taliban's top diplomats have been invited to the conference.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, his Special Representative for Afghanistan Tadamichi Yamamoto and EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini are among the invitees.

Representatives from China, Russia, the United States, Britain and many other countries are also expected to attend the meeting.

The conference may adopt a resolution calling for the integration of the armed opposition into the political life of Afghanistan and condemning all forms of terrorism.

PAN Monitor/mud