Russia yesterday hosted Taliban officials for talks in Moscow, as it seeks to assert its influence on Central Asia and push for action against Islamic State (IS) fighters that it says have massed in Afghanistan.
The talks, which drew officials from 10 countries including China and Pakistan, were one of the Taliban’s most significant international meetings since seizing power in mid-August.
They came after Russian President Vladimir Putin said last week that IS fighters were gathering in Afghanistan to spread discord in former Soviet republics.
Photo: Reuters
Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov addressed the gathering.
The Taliban delegation was headed by Deputy Prime Minister Abdul Salam Hanafi, a senior figure in the new Afghan leadership who led talks with the EU and the US last week.
Those followed talks in Ankara between Taliban and Turkish officials.
Brussels has pledged 1 billion euros (US$1.16 billion) to avert a humanitarian crisis after the hardline group’s takeover.
The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday said that one of the aims of the Moscow meeting was to consolidate the “efforts of the international community to prevent a humanitarian crisis.”
Moscow also said that the formation of an “inclusive government” would be on the agenda, and that parties to the talks were expected to release a joint statement afterward.
Moscow has reached out to the Taliban and hosted its representatives in Moscow several times in the past few years, even though the Taliban is a designated terrorist organization in Russia.
Senior Russian officials, including Putin, have been voicing numerous other security-related concerns since the Taliban wrested control of Afghanistan and foreign troops pulled out after nearly 20 years.
About 2,000 fighters loyal to the IS group had converged in northern Afghanistan, Putin said last week, adding that their leaders planned to send them into Central Asian countries disguised as refugees.
After the Taliban’s takeover, Russia ran military drills alongside former Soviet countries neighboring Afghanistan.
Lavrov also said that drug trafficking from Afghanistan had reached “unprecedented” levels, a concern since echoed by the Russian government at meetings with other Central Asia countries and China.
Despite reaching out to the Taliban, Russian officials, including Putin, have made clear that Moscow is not moving toward formal recognition of the Islamist regime.
“The official recognition is not being discussed and that has been stated publicly,” but Russia, like other countries in the region, is maintaining contact with the Taliban government, Lavrov said.
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