Putin Expresses Hope For Expansion Of Russia's Relations With Taliban

Vladimir Putin said on Thursday on the sidelines of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) summit that Afghanistan is achieving stability.

"The situation in Afghanistan is complicated," the Russian president told reporters. “However, we hope that we can develop our relations with Afghanistan," he added.

According to the state-run TASS news agency, Putin stressed that Moscow cannot ignore the fact that the situation in Afghanistan is stabilising. "We have entered into bilateral relations with the current Afghan authorities, and these relations will be further developed," he added.

The Russian president called the situation in the world tense, saying, "What is happening in Ukraine is not the only reason for the current difficulties. Is the situation in Asia good? Should the events on the CIS border with Afghanistan make us optimistic enough to turn our attention elsewhere?"

Recently, the secretary of the Russian National Security Council headed a delegation to Kabul and held talks with senior Taliban officials. The focus of these talks was the expansion of economic and political relations.

The Taliban hopes to reduce its international isolation with Russia's help. Russia and the Taliban are under severe economic and political sanctions from the West: Russia for its military aggression against Ukraine and the Taliban for supporting terrorist groups.

Russian media reported that Taliban’s Deputy Prime Minister Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar said in a meeting with the Russian delegation that the group has tried to create conditions for increasing the export of Afghan goods abroad and attracting foreign investment in Afghanistan.

"As you know, after the Taliban's victory in Afghanistan, the United States and Western countries are putting all kinds of pressure on us. So we expect Russia to help us defuse this pressure," he said.

Abdul Ghani Baradar has assured Russian officials that the Taliban is a reliable economic partner. He said that the Taliban's security institutions have taken measures to ensure security in Afghanistan, as a result of which the ISIS group has been destroyed in Afghanistan and transferred to other countries.

However, Russian and Central Asian officials are concerned about the activities of Uzbek and Tajik terrorist groups. At today's meeting of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation, Russia and the four Central Asian countries approved a plan to strengthen the border between Afghanistan and Tajikistan.

Referring to the multi-year US military presence in Afghanistan, Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu said that the United States should take the lead in rebuilding Afghanistan. He said that the United States, which hastily withdrew its troops from Afghanistan after 20 years, should take responsibility for helping to rebuild the country.

The Taliban quoted Russian officials as saying that Moscow will remove the group from the list of terrorist groups in the near future. However, the Kremlin spokesman said that the country has not made any decision on the matter.