On March 17, 2018, within the framework of regular political consultations, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Uzbekistan Abdulaziz Kamilov had a telephone conversation with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov.

The main theme of the conversation was the forthcoming high-level international conference on Afghanistan, to be held in Tashkent on March 26-27. 

Ministers exchanged views on the preparation process, the content part, the draft final document of Tashkent Forum and further coordination of joint efforts on the issues of finding ways of political settlement of the Afghan problem. 

The sides expressed a common opinion on the need of launching direct negotiations between the central government of Afghanistan and the Taliban movement.