MOSCOW. March 15 (Interfax) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will attend a high-level conference on the situation in Afghanistan that will be held in Uzbekistan's capital Tashkent on March 27, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said at a press briefing on Thursday.
"This meeting is aimed at forming a broad international consensus on the main principles of a peace settlement process in Afghanistan and looking for ways to promote regional cooperation in security issues and ways to involve Afghanistan in trade, transit, energy, cultural and humanitarian cooperation in Central Asia and outside it," Zakharova said.
The Russian Foreign Ministry views the upcoming conference in Tashkent as a follow-up to the international community's efforts, including those made as part of the Moscow format and the contact group of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and Afghanistan, to stabilize the situation in Afghanistan, she said.