The international conference on Afghanistan is to focus on efforts to counter terrorism and the drug traffic from the war-ravaged Central Asian state.
Afghanistan is the world's biggest producer of heroin, a business that has grown rapidly since the U.S.-led invasion toppled the Taliban regime in 2001.
The country is currently experiencing a rise in violence, with skirmishes with Taliban fighters and suicide bomb attacks on foreign troops and local officials being reported daily.
The conference will be held under the aegis of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a security group that comprises Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. It will also be attended by officials from Afghanistan, neighboring Turkmenistan, Group of Eight leading industrial countries, the European Union, NATO and the post-Soviet Commonwealth of Independent States.
Russia took over the presidency of the SCO last August. Iran, India, Mongolia and Pakistan have observer status in the organization.
Moscow proposed the conference "to coordinate and intensify international efforts to curb drug traffic and terrorism," the Kremlin said earlier.
