Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- Uzbekistan builds and shall build its relations with its close neighbor – Afghanistan only on the bilateral basis, proceeding from mutual national interests, and does not consider it possible for itself to participate in implementation of the programs and projects adopted on the collective or bloc basis, Foreign Minister of Uzbekistan Vladimir Norov said at the OSCE Summit in Astana, Kazakhstan.

“I would like to underscore that Uzbekistan’s participation in rendering assistance to Afghanistan remains to be rather substantial. Today practically the city of Kabul and its suburbs are fully provided with electricity at the expense of supplies from Uzbekistan”, he said.

“At the expense of our country’s funds the tens of bridges, roads and social facilities have also been built. In October this year Uzbekistan completed the construction of the railroad line from the bordering town Khairaton to Mazari-Shareef, which is one of the largest regional centers of Afghanistan,” the Uzbek official said.

Norov said that it becomes more obvious the particular fact that there is no military solution of the Afghan problem and the chosen strategy of the coalition forces to bring peace to Afghanistan does not bear the expected results.

The Uzbek minister said: “In the current situation it becomes utterly important to search the alternative ways of achieving peace and stability in Afghanistan. Among them, as we believe, creation of the Contact Group “6+3” under the United Nations auspices, which was proposed by Uzbekistan in 2008 in Bucharest at the NATO Summit and again enunciated by the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov at the Millennium Development Goals Summit in September 2010 in New York, could play a significant role.”

“The essence and substance of the Uzbek initiative are based on the need to recognize that the problems of their own country must be resolved by Afghans themselves along with the assistance of the countries, which proceeding from their security objectives, are interested in ending the war and a stable future of Afghanistan”, he said.

“The negotiations, in our opinion, must be held with all major confronting forces. Along with this, the first and foremost attention in the Program must be paid to rendering the economic aid, implementing the social, infrastructural and humanitarian projects, tackling the problems of unemployment, urgent tasks to eliminate poverty, misery and violation of rights. It is necessary to show a full respect to the centuries-old traditions, customs and values of the religion of Islam adhered by the people of Afghanistan”, Vladimir Norov said.