A meeting of the expanded "troika" (Russia, China, Pakistan, and the United States) on a peace settlement in Afghanistan at the level of special envoys will be held in Moscow on Thursday. The meeting at the President Hotel will be attended by representatives of the authorities of the Islamic republic and the Taliban (banned in Russia). In addition, representatives from Qatar have been invited to the consultation, and they have also confirmed their participation.
According to the media, the delegation of the Afghan authorities, headed by Abdullah Abdullah, head of the Supreme Council for National Reconciliation, also includes former president Hamid Karzai, former vice-presidents Abdul Rashid Dustum and Karim Khalili, and also former prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and other major politicians.
The Taliban delegation will be led by the movement's deputy leader, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar.
According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, Sergey Lavrov, head of the Russian diplomatic mission, will greet the participants of the meeting. They also noted that the sides will discuss ways to promote inter-Afghan negotiations in Doha, decrease the level of violence and stop the armed conflict in Afghanistan, and establish this country as an independent, a peaceful and self-sufficient state free of terrorism and drug crimes. A joint declaration is planned at the conclusion of the talks.
The settlement process
A little more than a year ago, the United States and the Taliban signed an agreement in Doha on the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan and the beginning of the peace process in the country. The agreement envisioned that inter-Afghan negotiations would begin on March 10, 2020. However, they have been continuously postponed. Direct negotiations between the government of Afghanistan and the Taliban began only on 12 September in the capital of Qatar, as a result of which the Taliban liberated a number of captured Afghan servicemen. In addition, a joint committee was formed to "facilitate negotiations."
In early December, the delegations announced the end of procedural discussions and a transition to an agenda for direct talks to restore peace in Afghanistan, but the talks were suspended until Jan. 5, 2021. When they resumed, new differences emerged between the delegations - on the issue of a ceasefire in Afghanistan, and later it became known that representatives of the radical movement had left the talks on the restoration of peace.
Places are many - the goal is one
The expanded troika meeting on Afghanistan in Moscow will be held against the background of the stalled inter-Afghan negotiations in Doha. Zamir Kabulov, the Russian president's special envoy for Afghanistan and director of the Second Asian Department of the Foreign Ministry, told TASS in an interview that there is an ongoing deadlock at the Doha session. The reason is that the sides have not yet managed to agree on an agenda.
Against this backdrop, outside players are stepping up their efforts to help the sides negotiate. The head of the Russian Foreign Ministry said during his recent visit to Doha that the Moscow meeting was convened precisely to "help the Doha talks continue from a more constructive standpoint. The minister also pointed out that this format is in no way a formal or in any way a fixed solution. "It is designed through informal, free discussions, confidential conversations to encourage the parties to be more cooperative," explained the head of the Foreign Ministry.
In this regard, Lavrov noted that the settlement process in Afghanistan is not an object of competition for Russia with Qatar or other states. Washington claims that the upcoming meeting in Moscow does not replace ongoing consultations in Doha.
At the beginning of March, it became known about the appearance of another possible negotiating platform on the Afghan settlement - in Istanbul. Washington proposed holding an international meeting on settlement in the republic under the aegis of the United Nations. Along with this, the United States explains the need for this meeting by the "too slow progress of the negotiation process" and Washington's intention to significantly accelerate it.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu later confirmed plans to organize such a meeting in Istanbul in April. He also stressed that the meeting would not be an alternative to the meeting in Qatar, but only a reinforcement of what has been achieved. And the U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, is expected to discuss these plans in Moscow in order to gain support for the idea of holding a regional conference in Istanbul.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Creative Commons
Based on materials from TASS