TASHKENT, October 16. /TASS/. Members of Uzbekistan’s government focused on border security at talks with an Afghan delegation led by Abdul Salam Hanafi, deputy prime minister of the Taliban’s (banned in Russia) provisional government, which were held in Termez, Uzbekistan’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Yusup Kabulzhanov told TASS on Saturday.

"At the meetings, representatives of a number of ministries and agencies discussed trade and economic cooperation, border security, cooperation in the fields of energy, international haulage and transit," he said in a statement.

The talks are reported to have focused on the implementation of infrastructure projects, which include the construction of the Surkhan-Puli-Khumri transmission line and the Termez-Mazar-i-Sharif-Kabul-Peshawar railway.

According to Kabulzhanov, the Uzbek delegation at the talks was headed by Investment and Foreign Trade Minister Sardor Umurzakov.

On September 21, in his online address to the 76th session of the UN General Assembly, Uzbekistan’s President Shavkat Mirziyoyev called on the international community to prevent Afghanistan’s isolation, noting that Tashkent regularly delivers food, oil products and electricity to the neighboring country.

On February 14, 2003, Russia’s Supreme Court handed down a ruling declaring the Taliban to be a terrorist organization, which is outlawed in Russia.