The foreign ministers of Afghanistan, Russia, Iran, China, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan will meet Thursday in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, to participate in the ministerial conference of Afghanistan's neighboring countries.
The Conference will consider further steps to promote a political settlement in Afghanistan and the stabilization of the humanitarian and socio-economic situation there.
A joint statement issued by China, Pakistan, Russia and Iran called on the United States and its allies to shoulder their responsibilities towards Afghanistan, lift sanctions and return frozen assets.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov arrived in Samarkand on Wednesday to participate in the conference, and met there with his Chinese counterpart Qin Zhang, where they exchanged an assessment of the situation in and around Ukraine and discussed the situation in Afghanistan and Central Asia and integration processes in Eurasia.
Lavrov will also participate on Friday in the sixth meeting of the foreign ministers of Russia and Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan), according to the Russian agency Novosti.