Council for Strategic Affairs, Indian Institute of Management Rohtak hosted an international conference in Central Asia on “Framework of engagement: Afghanistan in the focus of Central and South Asian nations” in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.

Representatives from all Central Asian nations along with India and Russia gathered to discuss finding innovative methods of engagement in conflict situations and attaining peace and harmony in Central and South Asia through non-standard methods.

The international conference was opened by a video message of the President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon. 

Professor at Tashkent State University of Oriental Studies A.Khaydarov delivered a speech at the event. He noted that achieving peace in Afghanistan is one of the main goals of Uzbekistan’s regional preventive diplomacy. Uzbekistan believes that the only way to achieve peace in the region is through the social-economic development of Afghanistan and the involvement of Afghanistan’s economy with world economic relations. Thus, Uzbekistan has been trying to resolve the crisis with its neighbouring countries by providing economic cooperation and supporting interstate infra projects. The modern aspects of cooperation on Afghanistan, formulated in the speech of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev at the meeting in the SCO-CSTO format in September 2021 were also noted.

Dr. Beruniy Alimov, Director of New Media Education Centre spoke about the Uzbekistan – Afghanistan relations in recent years. He informed that Afghanistan imports 83% of the electricity of which Uzbekistan is the largest supplier. He also told that Uzbekistan is working towards providing support to Afghanistan through trade cooperation, major interstate infrastructure projects, etc.  Adding to this, reinstated that the expansion of cooperation is possible only if there is a strong security guarantee for Uzbek and other countries who want to extend such cooperation. 

UzA