Dilorom FAIZIEVА,

Member of the Committee of the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis of the Republic of Uzbekistan on international affairs and inter-parliamentary relations:

Tashkent Conference on Afghanistan “Peace process, security cooperation and regional collaboration”, held on the initiative of the President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev and the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, it is a logical continuation of the efforts to ensure peace and stability in Afghanistan made by the international community. The IRA is part of Central Asia, so the conflict situation in it, the presence of international terrorist groups, ongoing violence and bloodshed, and drug business worry all the countries of our region.

At the same time, we in Uzbekistan are convinced that the people of Afghanistan want to return to peaceful life and creativity for the good of their country. Here I would like to highlight the thesis of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev that «the Afghan people have strength, wisdom, courage and perseverance to start a new and peaceful life, and to build it for the sake of prosperity of their children and future generations».

In this context, it should be note that the peoples of Uzbekistan and Afghanistan developed over the centuries in one cultural and civilization space, therefore, we, as neighbors, are interested in strengthening friendly and mutually beneficial relations with this country. For its part, UzLiDeP is a firm supporter of involving Afghanistan in the system of trade and economic, transport, communication and cultural-humanitarian ties, which is able to contribute to the process of normalizing the situation and returning this country to a peaceful life.

Today, Uzbekistan is contributing a fair share to the socio-economic revival of Afghanistan, for example, there are electricity supplies, direct trade and economic contacts and etc. In general, Afghanistan’s security is security of Uzbekistan, linchpin of stability and prosperity of entire greater region of Central and South Asia. This circumstance is a reflection of the indivisibility of security, which can only be ensured by joint efforts, so Uzbekistan has no "foreign" threats from neighboring countries.

In our party we believe that the Tashkent high-level international conference on Afghanistan is a real step to draft basic principles of peaceful settlement and secure broad international consensus on them, to develop a mechanism to start negotiations between the Afghan government and the armed opposition, to adopt a «Road map» of assistance by the international community to the process of national reconciliation in Afghanistan. We believe that Uzbekistan, as a result of the last conference, demonstrated the ability to create all the necessary conditions for organizing direct talks in the territory of our country between the Government of Afghanistan and the Taliban.

Adkham SHADMANOV,

MP of the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis of the Republic of Uzbekistan, member of the Executive Committee of the Political Council of UzLiDeP:

It is symbolic that the Tashkent international high-level Conference on Afghanistan «Peace process, security cooperation and regional connectivity» takes place during the spring and renewal – Navruz, during this period the wars used to cease, people forgave grievances to one another and used to come to accord even on the most, as it seemed, the insoluble problems. It can be said with full confidence that the past event has become an expert platform for constructive discussion and development of joint solutions to the conflict in Afghanistan, which has turned into one of the most acute regional problems of our time. Moreover, in recent years, instability in the IRA is increasingly turning into a complex geopolitical problem of the entire region.

In this regard, UzLiDeP believes, leading states and authoritative international organizations are able to play a decisive role in facilitating a peaceful settlement of the situation in Afghanistan. An analysis of the discussions in the framework of the last conference shows that it has become a place for uniting efforts aimed at ensuring peace and stability in Afghanistan.

At present, the multifaceted and not simple issues of settlement of the situation in Afghanistan are broadly discussed on the regional and international levels. The Kabul process, Moscow format, International Contact Group, Istanbul process – «The heart of Asia», Contact group «SCO-Afghanistan» and other multilateral platforms deserve most serious attention which are established to seek ways of settlement of the military-political crisis in Afghanistan. Uzbekistan supports decisions adopted by participants of the second meeting in the framework of the Kabul process in favor of launching direct talks between the Afghan government and Taliban movement «without preliminary conditions and threats of use of violence».

However, we believe that the main condition of advancement towards peace is, first of all, to draft and implement in practice the sole, both regionally and globally endorsed Comprehensive peace program for Afghanistan. It is necessary to ensure the achievement of a firm consensus, primarily with the support of Pakistan, India, Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar and the countries of Central Asia, aimed at implementing coordinated measures to solve the Afghan problem. All this will contribute to the strengthening of common security and stability, create favorable conditions for the construction of roads and railways, laying pipelines, developing regional and trans-regional trade. And it concerns not only economic component, it is important to organize close interaction in bringing to population of the countries of Central Asia, especially youth, humanistic essence of Islam.

Summarizing the above all, it can be noted that the discussions and adoption of the final declaration at the Tashkent Conference have become practical results in the achievement of the peace process in Afghanistan. All of this should be a clear indication that the world community is able to counteract common challenges and threats.

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