Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- A virtual conference has been held on “The Afghan Peace Process and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization”.

The event was organized by the leading analytical centers of Uzbekistan and Pakistan – the Institute for Strategic and Regional Studies  (ISMI)under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan and Islamabad Institute of Policy Studies.

The conference brought together diplomats, prominent scholars and researchers in international politics, UzA reported.

The participants of the meeting exchanged views on the prospects for mutually beneficial cooperation in achieving long-term and sustainable peace in Afghanistan.

Director of the Institute for Strategic and Regional Studies under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Eldor Aripov presented Tashkent’s vision of the Afghan settlement, its impact on the regional process, including in the SCO space. As the ISMI Director emphasized, the prospects for stable and sustainable development in Central Asia are inextricably linked with the achievement of peace in Afghanistan.

Largely due to the foreign policy course of the President of Uzbekistan, E. Aripov noted, the Central Asian region is gradually getting rid of many unresolved problems in the past that hindered cooperation and negatively affected mutual understanding. Today, the countries of the region come out with a consolidated position on key issues of the region-wide agenda, the resolution of the Afghan problem.

It was emphasized that the use of the transit and infrastructure potential of Afghanistan will provide the Central Asian countries with the shortest access to the seaports of Pakistan – Gwadar, Karachi. This is beneficial not only for Uzbekistan, but also for all countries of Central Asia, South Asia, and the Middle East.

A powerful impetus to the discussion of all these issues and their practical implementation will be given by the initiative forwarded by the President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev to hold in May 2021 the International Conference “Central and South Asia: Regional Connectivity. Challenges and Opportunities”.

In his address, SCO Secretary-General Vladimir Norov noted that an early settlement of the situation in Afghanistan is one of the most important factors in maintaining and strengthening security and stability in the Organization’s space.

The SCO Secretary-General emphasized that the political basis for the start of the Afghan peace process was the Tashkent Conference on Afghanistan, organized in March 2018. He also noted the relevance of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s initiative to adopt a Plan of Practical Measures for the Socio-Economic Recovery of Afghanistan within the Contact Group “SCO-Afghanistan”, which will play an exclusive role in the post-conflict reconstruction of the country.

In turn, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan Shah Mahmood Qureshi appealed to the participants to support the peace process in Afghanistan. The ongoing inter-Afghan peace talks in Doha, he noted, inspire optimism and hope in establishing sustainable peace in the country.

In particular, the full implementation of the transport and infrastructure potential of peaceful Afghanistan will reduce the time for transporting goods from Uzbekistan to Pakistan from 35 to 3-5 days. At the same time, the export of Uzbek products can increase 3 times - from 100 to 300 million dollars.

At the same time, as the diplomat noted, the signing of the historic agreement between the United States and the Taliban in February 2020, as well as the beginning of the intra-Afghan dialogue between TM and Kabul, are unprecedented events and an important milestone in the process of political settlement of the long-term conflict in Afghanistan.