Baku, Azerbaijan, March 27
By Fikret Dolukhanov – Trend:
Participants of the international conference on the settlement of the situation in Afghanistan “The peace process, cooperation in the security sphere and regional cooperation” in Tashkent adopted the final declaration on March 27.
The declaration emphasizes that a political settlement with the Taliban is the best way to end the violence in Afghanistan. There is also a need for direct peace negotiations between the government and moderate Taliban representatives without preconditions.
“We call on the Taliban to recognize their share of responsibility for the establishment of peace and security in Afghanistan to put an end to the suffering of the people and formally declare their readiness to enter into peace talks with the Afghan government,” the declaration read.
Afghanistan's Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani urged the United States and Russia not to turn his country into a place for confrontation.
“We would like to urge these two friendly countries to work jointly with the Afghan government. We want to see that Afghanistan is a place for cooperation, not confrontation. This is what we want and we really appreciate the desire to establish peace,” Rabbani said.
The forum was attended by the Foreign Ministers of the Central Asian countries, UN Secretary General's Special Representative for Afghanistan Tadamichi Yamamoto, Head of the EU's Foreign Policy Service Federica Mogherini, US Deputy Secretary of State for Political Affairs Thomas Shannon, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
Special representatives for Afghanistan and Pakistan from the UK, Germany, and Italy, special advisor of Japan’s Foreign Ministry, special envoy of Qatar’s Foreign Ministry, high delegations from NATO, CSTO, France and the United Arab Emirates participated in the conference.