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AKIPRESS (26 March 2018)

The EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/Vice-President of the European Commission, Federica Mogherini will arrive in Uzbekistan to participate in the Tashkent Conference on Afghanistan: "Peace process, security cooperation and regional connectivity", the EU Delegation in Uzbekistan reported.

The conference brings together Afghanistan, the five Central Asian countries, the United Nations and other stakeholders to work towards peace, increased security and regional development in Afghanistan and the region, and builds on the successful Kabul Process meeting held at the end of February as well as the Brussels Conference on Afghanistan, held in October 2016.

Topics for discussion at the conference include matters relating to peace and reconciliation, counter terrorism and counter narcotics, as well as regional cooperation. All of these themes feature strongly in the EU's own Afghanistan Strategy (Joint Communication; Council Conclusions), which was adopted in October 2017, as well as the EU-Afghanistan Cooperation Agreement on Partnership and Development, which has been provisionally applied since December 1, 2017.

The High Representative/Vice-President will address the conference as an opening speaker. She will also hold, in the margins of the conference, a number of bilateral meetings, including with the Presidents of Uzbekistan and Afghanistan, as well as several Ministers.

Four months after the most recent formal EU-Central Asia Foreign Ministers' Meeting, chaired by the High Representative in Samarkand in November 2017, Federica Mogherini will again meet the five Foreign Ministers in order to discuss recent developments in the region and ways to take the EU's engagement forward, in particular in view of the new EU Strategy for Central Asia which is currently being developed and following a landmark meeting of Central Asian leaders held in Astana on 15 March, which gave new momentum to regional cooperation.

Coverage of the visit will be provided by Europe by Satellite. For more information see the factsheet on EU-Afghanistan relations and the website of the EU Delegation to Afghanistan, likewise the factsheets on EU-Central Asia regional relations and on relations with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

https://akipress.com/news:604005/