Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that the US mission in Afghanistan had failed, and everyone understands this, including Washington.
"The Americans left, as President Joe Biden confirmed, because they considered their mission accomplished. Of course, he was trying to paint the situation in as positive a light as possible, but everyone understands that the mission had failed. And this is openly acknowledged, including in the US," he told a reporter on the sidelines of the international conference "Central and South Asia: Regional Interconnectedness. Challenges and Opportunities".
In this regard, Lavrov pointed out that terrorism in the country has not disappeared: the terrorist organization Islamic State (IS, banned in Russia) and a branch of al-Qaeda (banned in Russia) have strengthened their positions in Afghanistan. "Drug production has reached record heights. Now 90% of all drugs in the world come from Afghanistan. Virtually nothing is being done to fight this," he continued.
Lavrov noted that Moscow is not interested in chaos in Afghanistan.
"We are not interested in chaos there. Not only because we don't want it to spill over into neighboring allied countries. But simply because we want the very, very real wellbeing of the Afghan people and we are interested in these people who are friendly to us living peacefully and in a society that is developing steadily, without any threats of terrorism, drug trafficking coming from this territory," he said.
Russia will continue to work with the US and all other countries that can influence the situation in Afghanistan, Lavrov said. "We will continue to work with the Americans in the format of the so-called extended troika [Russia, the US, China, Pakistan]. We will also work with all other countries that can somehow influence the situation in Afghanistan, including our partners from Central Asia, India, Iran and the United States. We have the Moscow format, which includes all the key players in this field," he said.
Resolving the situation
According to Lavrov, Russia believes there is no need to invent new negotiating formats or agreements to resolve the situation in Afghanistan.
"It seems to us that there is no need to invent any new arrangements for this [resolving the situation in Afghanistan]. We need to implement what has already been agreed upon by the government [of Afghanistan] first of all and the Taliban [banned in Russia] movement," he said, answering a question to TASS.
"Here at the conference, on the sidelines, people are already speculating about some other formats, there could be a great many of them now. Everyone will probably want in some way - most of them in good faith - to help give impetus to the political process, which has long been at a standstill," Lavrov added.
Meetings between representatives of the Afghan government and the Taliban have been taking place in Doha, Qatar, since last September. Many rounds have taken place, but the delegations have so far limited themselves to discussing the agenda for future peace talks; such talks have not yet reached the negotiating table. Later this week, a delegation from the Afghan Government, led by Abdullah Abdullah, Chairman of the High National Reconciliation Council of Afghanistan, is expected to travel to Doha.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Russian Foreign Ministry
Based on materials from TASS