TEHRAN (Iran News) – September 23, 2020, the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev made a report in the debate 75th General Assembly of the United Nations. During his speech, he put forward a number of important international initiatives on the need to develop and adopt an International Code on voluntary commitments of states during a pandemic, to increase attention to the global problem of poverty, to adopt a special resolution of the UN General Assembly on declaring the Aral Sea region a zone of environmental innovations, technologies and etc.

It should be noted that in his report, the President of Uzbekistan emphasized the creation of a new format of international cooperation on Afghanistan and the formation of a permanent committee at the UN.

Thanks to the efforts of the international community, including regional countries, significant progress is being made in Afghanistan in advancing the peace process.

As you know, Uzbekistan traditionally pursues a friendly policy towards Afghanistan, supporting the government elected by the Afghan people. This policy has acquired a holistic, comprehensive and dynamic character with the election of Sh.Mirziyoyev to the post of President of the country.

One of the political foundations in this direction was the International Conference on Afghanistan, held in March 2018 in Tashkent on the initiative of the presidents of Uzbekistan and Afghanistan – Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Ashraf Ghani. The Tashkent Declaration, adopted at the end of the conference, became a kind of strategy for further peace building in Afghanistan, consolidated a comprehensive consensus at the regional and global levels on the need for an early start of direct inter-Afghan negotiations.

First Deputy Foreign Minister of Iran Abbas Arakchi also took part in the work of the Tashkent International Conference on Afghanistan from the Iranian side. Tehran fully supported the initiatives of official Tashkent put forward within the framework of the final communiqué of this international forum.

It should be emphasized that Uzbekistan’s involvement in solving the Afghan problem is not limited to diplomatic efforts. Today, given the coronavirus pandemic, Uzbekistan is making a significant contribution to improving the socio-economic situation in neighboring Afghanistan through the implementation of specific projects in the field of transport, economy, energy and education, and supports the neighboring country in overcoming the humanitarian crisis caused by the pandemic.

In order to ensure uninterrupted transit of food and medicine, Uzbekistan has ensured the operation of checkpoints on the Uzbek-Afghan border as usual and extended the period for granting discounts up to 50 percent for the transportation of goods through Uzbekistan to / from Afghanistan into 2020.

From a high international rostrum, the President of Uzbekistan called for strengthening the interaction of the countries of the region on the development of trade and economic cooperation with Afghanistan, including through the implementation of infrastructure projects, creation of favorable conditions for the expansion of border trade, air, road and rail freight traffic.

In this regard, the strengthening of transport, communication and trade and economic cooperation with Afghanistan by such countries of the region as Uzbekistan and Iran can significantly enhance the opportunities for the development of trans-regional cooperation, create favorable conditions for the launch and implementation of joint projects in this country in the field of energy, trade, agriculture, education and culture.

It should also be noted that Uzbekistan was one of the first countries to welcome the decision to hold an initial round of inter-Afghan talks in the capital of Qatar, Doha.

In the framework of the recent inter-Afghan talks in Qatar, Uzbekistan expressed its readiness to organize one of the rounds of inter-Afghan peace talks in the ancient city of Samarkand.

Committed to the development of mutually beneficial relations with all foreign partners, Uzbekistan concentrates its main foreign policy efforts on the most important areas identified in the Action Strategy for five priority areas of development of the Republic in 2017-2021.