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Lavrov to participate in international conference on Afghanistan in Tashkent

The forum participants will form a consolidated position on the beginning of direct talks between the government of Afghanistan and the radical Taliban movement

TASHKENT, March 27. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is going to participate in the International High-Level Conference on Afghanistan, Peace Process, Security Cooperation and Regional Connectivity in Tashkent on Tuesday. The conference will be opened by the presidents of Uzbekistan and Afghanistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Ashraf Ghani. After that a high-level session will take place, where the Russian Foreign Minister is scheduled to deliver a speech.

"We reaffirm our resolve to continue to promote interaction with Afghanistan in the fight against the terrorist and drug threats in close cooperation with our regional partners. We will continue to help Afghanistan to develop a combat ready army and a police force and we will also assist in training Afghan military and police personnel at the relevant Russian educational establishments," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement earlier.

According to the Foreign Ministry of Uzbekistan, the forum participants will form a consolidated position on the beginning of direct talks between the government of Afghanistan and the radical Taliban movement. Adoption of the Tashkent Declaration should be the main result of the conference, which would contain the key principles of intra-Afghan settlement.

The High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini, Foreign Ministers of Turkey, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, External Affairs Minister of India, US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Thomas Shannon, deputy foreign ministers of China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkmenistan, as well as the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative for Afghanistan Tadamichi Yamamoto have confirmed their participation in the meeting.

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