The six-plus-two nations describes an informal coalition of the six nations surrounding Afghanistan

Afghanistan

Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...

 (China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

, Iran

Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

, Pakistan

Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

, Tajikistan

Tajikistan

Tajikistan , officially the Republic of Tajikistan , is a mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia. Afghanistan borders it to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, and China to the east....

, Turkmenistan

Turkmenistan

Turkmenistan , formerly also known as Turkmenia is one of the Turkic states in Central Asia. Until 1991, it was a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic . Turkmenistan is one of the six independent Turkic states...

 and Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan , officially the Republic of Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia and one of the six independent Turkic states. It shares borders with Kazakhstan to the west and to the north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the east, and Afghanistan and Turkmenistan to the south....

) plus the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

, from 1999 to 2001. The coalition worked first to find a solution between the Afghan Northern Alliance and later to explore a post-Taliban government for Afghanistan.

The informal coalition came from the "6 plus 2" initiative of Islam Karimov, President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, who proposed to join the efforts of all neighbouring countries with Afghanistan, and two global leaders - the United States and the Russian Federation for peaceful settlement of the situation in Afghanistan. The "6 plus 2" Group functioned under the auspices of the United Nations.

More on this group of countries proceed to the article Six plus Two Group on Afghanistan

Six plus Two Group on Afghanistan

The Six plus Two Group on Afghanistan describes an informal coalition of the six nations bordering with Afghanistan , plus the United States and Russia, which functioned from 1999 to 2001 under the aegis of the United Nations...

.