Foreign Ministry: Russia welcomes prisoner exchange in Afghanistan

02 April 2020


Russia considers the upcoming exchange of prisoners from the Taliban for the Afghan military as a positive step, the Special Presidential Representative for Afghanistan, Director of the second Asia Department of the Foreign Ministry Zamir Kabulov told TASS.


"In any case, this is a positive step, even a small one, but a positive step towards the implementation of such agreements", the diplomat said.


The first exchange of prisoners in Afghan prisons of supporters of the Taliban (outlawed in Russia) for soldiers of the army of Afghanistan will be made on April 2, TOLOnews TV channel reported.


According to the TV channel, it is planned to release 100 supporters of the radical movement. The Taliban also pledge to hand over 20 soldiers held captive to the Afghan authorities.


The exchange of prisoners is one of the main points of the peace agreement that the Taliban and official Kabul signed on March 29. This will be followed by the launch of inter-Afghan negotiations.

 

GSV "Russia - Islamic World"

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