A lot of cash is being invested in resolving the Afghan crisis - billions are contributed as technical assistance, humanitarian assistance, armament and equipment. However, one of the main problems of the Afghan crisis is an abundance of arms and cash, with shortage of diplomacy, the first deputy chairman of the Uzbek Senate Sodiq Safoyev said at a press conference on Saturday.
"The Tashkent conference will aim to contribute not only to collective reflection of the most difficult problems around the Afghan crisis, but to find ways to address them. On the other hand, it is aimed at creation of a multilateral platform for regional connectivity, whose goal is to assist Afghanistan and the Afghans in resolving these problems," he said.
The senator reminded that "in the whole history of Afghanistan, since 1779 when the country was created in its current form, it was closely connected to its neighbors - ethnically, religiously." Therefore, Afghanistan has always projected both opportunities and problems on regional scale, he believes.
"Afghanistan also offers huge strategic opportunities for Central Asia, in terms of transport routes and trade," he said.
"The Tashkent conference must solve the problem related with the deficit of multilateral diplomacy and political approaches to the solution of the Afghan problem," Sadik Safayev concluded.
The high-level conference on Afghanistan "Peace Process, Security Cooperation and Regional Connectivity" will be held from March 26-27 on the initiative of the President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev.
