Uzbekistan will keep exerting efforts to help stabilize the situation in Afghanistan and assist to its socio-economic development, according to the agreements reached at the March conference on Afghanistan in Tashkent, the Uzbek Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Over the past period, a series of consultative meetings and talks with the Afghan government, representatives of the United States, China, Russia, the countries of the International Contact Group, the states of the Eurasian region, South Asia and the Middle East.
"Along with this, in order to promote the consolidated position of the participants of the Tashkent conference, Uzbekistan established contacts and held working meetings with high-ranking members of the Taliban movement, during which the sides discussed the prospects for dialogue aimed at establishing long-term peace and stability in Afghanistan and its economic development," the statement said.
"Uzbekistan welcomes the mutual ceasefire between the Government of Afghanistan and the Taliban run through the Eid-ul-Fitr festival period, which began this past Friday and end on Sunday. The Uzbek side hopes that this truce will be extended indefinitely by both sides, following the announcement by the Afghan President Ashraf Gani of its extension for indefinite period," the statement added.
The Foreign Ministry confirmed "full readiness to create, at any stage of the peace process, all the necessary conditions for organizing direct talks in the territory of Uzbekistan between the Government of Afghanistan and the Taliban movement."
