The US has made several strategic mistakes in Afghanistan, one of which was the imposition of American notions of democracy on the Afghan people, said Zamir Kabulov, Special Representative of the Russian President for Afghanistan and Director of the Second Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry.
"The result of the current situation in Afghanistan stems from the strategic mistakes that the US and its allies made while pursuing their Afghan policy. One of the main US mistakes in Afghanistan was that instead of helping to rebuild a normal, neutral country, the US decided to take advantage of the situation to create an extensive network of military bases on its territory, which would project power to the entire region adjacent to Afghanistan, including Russia, not to mention Afghanistan's other immediate neighbors," Kabulov said, speaking at an online roundtable organized by the Gorchakov Public Diplomacy Support Fund.
"The second mistake that I think is strategic: the Americans instead of just helping Afghanistan to develop, its state institutions, the economy, relying on Afghan traditions, they got engaged in democratization and imposing their own ideas about democracy, and they failed," the Russian diplomat added.
In Afghanistan, there is a confrontation between the government forces and the Taliban fighters* who have taken control of large territories in the rural areas and attacked big cities. Instability in the country is increasing against the background of the US administration's promises to finish withdrawal of troops from the Afghan land by September 11. Washington and the Taliban signed their first peace deal in more than 18 years of war in Doha in 2020. It provides for the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan in 14 months and the start of an inter-Afghan dialogue after the exchange of prisoners.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Creative Commons
Based on materials from RIA Novosti