Moscow is open to cooperation with Washington, Brussels, and the North Atlantic alliance on the Afghan issue, Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday at a meeting with members of the Association of European businesses in Russia.
"We are open to cooperation both with the United States and the European Union, and with NATO, for that matter, because I believe that NATO countries, of course, should bear a substantial, major share of the responsibility for the reconstruction of Afghanistan," said the head of the diplomatic mission, responding to a question about the prospects for Moscow's interaction on Afghanistan with its respective partners.
The head of the foreign ministry reminded all Western colleagues of Moscow's principled position "against the transfer of military infrastructure from Afghanistan, or the placement of new military infrastructure in the Central Asian republics" in order to deliver "over-the-horizon strikes on Afghanistan" if necessary, which could turn those countries into "a target for terrorists."
"It is necessary to fight in a completely different way. And, of course, those who cooperated with these particular people should be responsible for the flows of refugees. Now many are persuading Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kazakhstan to take refugees for a couple of months, and then we'll take them back, we need to issue documents for them. If they cooperated with Western countries for many years, the Americans and others, do we really have to wait two months to process the documents? This is not a very correct thing," he said.
The minister stressed that the stability of Central Asian neighbors is very "important for Moscow," and drew attention to the fact that the Russian capital will soon host a meeting on Afghanistan in the Moscow format. "This is a step in preparation for an international conference, which is already being announced and which should address the issues of Afghanistan's reconstruction. And we have a place to cooperate here," he added.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Russian Foreign Ministry
Based on materials from TASS