President of Uzbekistan participates in NATO summit in Bucharest

April 04, 2008

President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov participated in the NATO Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council summit held in Bucharest on April 3, 2008.

The heads of states and governments of the EAPC member countries discussed cooperation in ensuring regional and international stability, as well as settling the situation in Afghanistan.

Speaking at the summit, President of Uzbekistan said “NATO’s transformation into a political structure has become a reality, and this is a positive stimulus for the further development and strengthening of the EAPC”. Islam Karimov touched upon the prospective directions of constructive cooperation with NATO.

The President called on the summit participants to wide-scale international cooperation, development and implementation of concrete practical measures to stabilize the situation in Afghanistan.

Despite the fact that international organizations and separate states have taken active measures, Afghanistan remains to be the source of danger for the world community, he said.

Islam Karimov said it was expedient to resume the negotiation process on achieving peace and stability in Afghanistan in the framework of contact group 6+2. The group effectively operated in 1997-2001 with support of the United Nations.

6+2 group was the only efficient international mechanism to stabilize the situation in Afghanistan. However, in 2001 its activity was reduced because of the start of the antiterrorist operations.

“Taking into consideration the contemporary realities, it would be necessary to transform the contact group which operated until 2001 from 6+2 into 6+3 bearing in mind the compulsory participation of the NATO representation in this negotiation process,” Islam Karimov said.

Uzbekistan has been cooperating with NATO since 1994 in the framework of the Partnership for Peace Program. Representatives of Uzbekistan have participated in more than 400 events of this program in the past seven years.