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APPROACHES OF UZBEKISTAN ON THE SOLUTION OF THE AFGHAN CONFLICT Bakhtiyor Mustafayev, Head of the Centre, the Institute for Strategic and Regional Studies under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan. Annotation The article is devoted to the problems of settlement of the situation in Afghanistan. the author analyzes The approaches of Uzbekistan to the issues related to ensuring Afghanistan's security and development through the prism of security and well-being of the entire region. He highlights the main factors that contribute to Uzbekistan's efforts aimed at achieving peace and stability in the IRA, and disclose the terms of the commitment of Tashkent to the principle of indivisibility of security. Referring to Central Asia as the main priority of Uzbekistan’s foreign policy, we also consider the development of relations with neighboring Afghanistan. Today, nobody can deny that the conflict in Afghanistan remains one of the hot problems of regional and international security. Analysis of the status quo in Afghanistan shows that the military and political situation in the country remains turbulent and controversial that is, evidenced by the strengthening of the military and political influence of the Taliban movement, the expanding influence of the so-called “Islamic state”, the deterioration of the socio-economic situation and the growth of narcotics production. Taking this into account, the current difficult situation in Afghanistan requires a thoughtful assessment of the internal situation and consideration of its solution is as followings: Firstly, the results of the international community efforts, undertaken during more than three decades convincingly demonstrated that there is no military solution to afghan conflict. The only way for establishing peace is a direct dialogue between the opposing sides. At the same time, one important thing is that the Afghans themselves should suggest the format of future negotiations, and negotiations should take place without putting forward preconditions by sides under the auspices of the United Nations; Secondly, today the Afghan conflict has become fully international, its content and structure have changed fundamentally. In this regard, in addition to form an intra-Afghan consensus, it is necessary to form a consensus at the regional level, as well as to develop an understanding and common approaches between extra-regional players. At the same time, the Afghan issue should not be in the international agenda on the “residual” principle because of the emergence of new “hot spots” in various regions of the world; Thirdly, the most important condition for stabilizing the situation in Afghanistan, along with a political settlement, is integration of the country into international economic relations, including also to the regional economic processes in Central Asia. We should consider Afghanistan not as a problem, but as an opportunity, as a new prospect for mutually beneficial regional cooperation. All these meet the fundamental interests of the Central and South Asia countries, opening a strategic opportunity for realizing all existing potential in spheres such as trade, economic and cultural-humanitarian cooperation, “breakthrough” in the field of transport communications. The development of the trans-Afghan corridor will have a positive impact on the access of the Central Asian countries to the ports of South Asia, the Persian Gulf and the Middle East. 41