TASHKENT (Xinhua) — Uzbek Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov and visiting U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad discussed prospects for the start of the Afghan peace process, the press service of Uzbek foreign office said on Thursday.

The two sides discussed the priority areas of the Uzbek-U.S. cooperation, as well as proposals for cooperating on large socio-economic infrastructure projects in Afghanistan, the office said in a statement.

These projects aim to enable Afghanistan to develop in a peaceful and stable manner and to be part of the political, commercial, economic, cultural and humanitarian space of the Central Asian region, according to the declaration.

Uzbekistan held a two-day conference in Tashkent in 2018 to encourage the Afghan government and the Taliban to engage in peace talks.

In early March, Komilov met with the Taliban leadership in Doha, Qatar and later met with an Afghan delegation led by Hamdullah Mohib, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s national security adviser, in Tashkent.