UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed readiness to support the implementation of the railroad project connecting Central and South Asia through Afghanistan, the Uzbek Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday
TASHKENT (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th September, 2022) UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed readiness to support the implementation of the railroad project connecting Central and South Asia through Afghanistan, the Uzbek Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.
On Monday, Uzbekistan's acting Foreign Minister Vladimir Norov held a meeting with Guterres at the UN headquarters in New York, during which the senior officials discussed issues of bilateral cooperation.
"The UN is ready to fully support projects promoted by Uzbekistan to strengthen interregional interconnectedness, including the construction of the Termez-Mazar-i-Sharif-Kabul-Peshawar railway," the ministry said in a statement.
Guterres also expressed support for Uzbekistan's efforts to mitigate the effects of the Aral Sea drying up, improve the quality of life of the Aral Sea region's population by building modern housing, social and industrial infrastructure facilities there, the statement said.
"Norov stated that Uzbekistan considers the UN as a universal and reliable international structure for maintaining stability and sustainable development, protecting human rights around the world," the ministry added.
In February 2021, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan signed a road map for the railway construction via the cities of Termez, Mazar-i-Sharif, Kabul, and Peshawar, with the project's preliminary cost of $5 billion. The new transport corridor with a cargo transit capacity of up to 20 million tonnes is set to link the European Union, Russia, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Southeast Asian countries.
