Russia’s FM Will Not Meet Taliban Delegation

Zamir Kabulov, Russia's Special Representative for Afghanistan, said that the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has no plan to meet the Taliban’s foreign minister.

Amir Khan Muttaqi, the Taliban’s Foreign Minister, has travelled to Russia to participate in the Moscow Format meeting.

This meeting is being held on Friday in Kazan.

Kabulov said that the Russian Foreign Minister has not invited the Taliban delegation to participate in the Moscow format meeting.

The Russian Foreign Minister bears no obligations towards "the guests I have personally invited”, said Kabulov.

The Russian representative stated, "I want to emphasise that the Taliban are not participants, but guests of the Moscow format meeting. There is a fundamental difference between the two," he said.

He added that Moscow Format has the participation of 10 countries, including Russia, China, Pakistan, Iran, India Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

According to him, representatives of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Turkey are also present as observers in the Moscow Format meeting.

Forming an inclusive government in Afghanistan is one of the topics that is going to be discussed in the meeting.