Russia's foreign minister says that an international conference on Afghanistan hosted by Moscow will help stabilize the country, AP reported. Sergey Lavrov said Thursday that the conference should improve coordination of global efforts to combat terrorism and drug-trafficking in Afghanistan. Friday's conference will be attended by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and senior officials from the United States, the European Union, NATO and other international organizations. The conference is organized by the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which includes Russia, China and the ex-Soviet Central Asian nations of Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.
