The international community should help Afghanistan achieve reconciliation, and the expanded troika (Russia, the United States, China and Pakistan) and the Moscow format should play the key role, Gennady Gatilov, Russia's Permanent Representative to the UN Office and other international organizations in Geneva, said on Tuesday at a special session of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) devoted to the situation in Afghanistan.
"We are in favor of establishing an Afghan national dialogue, which will allow the formation of a representative government," the Russian diplomat said, stressing that Moscow is "interested in an early peaceful settlement in Afghanistan, the subsequent stabilization in the country and its post-conflict reconstruction."
"We believe that the international community should help Afghanistan to achieve national reconciliation. The extended troika (Russia, USA, China and Pakistan) and Moscow format, which have already established themselves as the most efficient mechanisms of external support of the Afghan settlement, have a key role in this," Gatilov stated. The diplomat said that Russia is still concerned about the "acuteness of the terrorist threat and the narcotics problem connected to it" that still exists in Afghanistan. He called on "all involved Afghan parties to refrain from armed activities and help to settle the conflict peacefully".
The 31st special session of the HRC was convened at the request of Pakistan, as coordinator of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, as well as Afghanistan, due to "serious concerns about the situation in Afghanistan." The resolution urges all parties to the conflict to respect their obligations under international law and end the violence. It also deals with the provision of humanitarian aid to Afghanistan and stresses the "need for transparent and rapid investigation" of reports of human rights violations and to bring those responsible to justice.
The HRC is an intergovernmental body of the UN system. The Council consists of 47 states, each of which is elected by a majority vote of the UN General Assembly. Russia was re-elected to the HRC in October 2020 for a three-year term beginning January 1, 2021.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Sergey Fadeichev / TASS
Based on materials from TASS