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Russia and 20 more nations invited to conference on Afghanistan in Istanbul — source

The conference is organized by the United Nations, Turkey, and Qatar

NEW YORK CITY, April 13. /TASS/. Russia, the United States, the European Union, NATO, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and 20 more nations have been invited to take part in a conference on Afghanistan to be held in Istanbul on April 24 through May 4, a diplomatic source told TASS on Tuesday.

The conference is organized by the United Nations, Turkey, and Qatar.

"Invitations have been sent to Austria, Azerbaijan, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Iran, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Norway, the United Kingdom, the United States, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, to the EU high commissioner, the NATO secretary general, and the secretary general of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation," the source said.

According to United Nations Secretary General Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric, UN chief Antonio Guterres plans to take part in the conference in a videoconference format.

The Turkish foreign ministry said earlier that a conference on peace settlement in Afghanistan would be held with participation of representatives of the Afghan government and the Taliban radical movement (outlawed in Russia). It stressed that the key goal of the conference was to give a fresh impetus to the intra-Afghan talks in Doha and supplement them.

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