As reported earlier, President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov received US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Ambassador Marc Grossman and Germany's Special Envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan Michael Steiner at Oqsaroy presidential residence on 11 October 2011.

US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Marc Grossman said: “I’m delighted to be here with my colleague Ambassador Steiner of Germany. We had the good fortune this morning to call on the President.

“We appreciated his time, his good counsel and his advice. We took the opportunity to thank him for all Uzbekistan does to support peace and stability in Afghanistan. And we took the opportunity to brief him on the diplomatic efforts to create two successful conferences this year on Afghanistan—one in Istanbul in November and the other in Bonn on 5 December,” he added.

Michael Steiner said: “I think it was a new approach that both representatives of the United States and of Germany had a common presentation to the leader of Uzbekistan. And I think I can say we are happy that we share the view that a solution in Afghanistan must be found within Afghanistan, and that the region and the neighbors have to respect the independence of the solution to be found in Afghanistan. “And the second point I’d like to underline is that we are happy that the President has expressed readiness to take part in the conferences mentioned, and this is a good sign that we are happy the President has said that Uzbekistan will take part in the two conferences, both in Istanbul on 2 November, and the one on the 5 December in Bonn,” German official said.

Grossman added: “The peace process in Afghanistan is extremely important as Ambassador Steiner said. That peace process is Afghan led and Afghan owned. So, we agreed that it’s the job of Uzbekistan, of the United States and Germany to support that Afghan led process.”

“On the economic question, we all agreed that economic integration and economic development in the region is extremely important. And that’s why we raised with the President the vision of the new Silk Road. But when I think of what Uzbekistan has already done, for example, in terms of provision of electricity to Afghanistan, railways to Mazar-i-Sharif, these are all examples of why economic integration and economic development are so important. So, from our perspective, and I believe from Ambassador Steiner’s as well, Uzbekistan’s support for Afghanistan is important in all aspects,” the US envoy said.