Russia invites Taliban to talks on Afghanistan
Russia said on Thursday that it would invite representatives of the Taliban to international talks on Afghanistan later this month.
“A round of talks will be held in Moscow on October 20,” Russian President Vladimir Putin’s special representative for Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying earlier today.
“Moscow hosted an international conference on Afghanistan last March, during which Russia, the US, China, and Pakistan issued a joint statement calling on the warring Afghan parties at the time to reach a peace agreement and curb violence.”
The United States and its allies withdrew their troops from Afghanistan after 20 years of war, and the Taliban seized power in a lightning advance that collapsed the previous government.
Alexey Zaitsev, deputy director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Information and Press Department, said: “His country has observed masses of Afghan and Tajik troops on the border between the two countries,” he said, calling on both sides to settle the matter.
He said the Taliban announced that tens of thousands of Special Forces troops are stationed along the Afghan-Tajik border in Takhar province.
The Russian diplomat continued: “Moscow, in this context, calls on Dushanbe and Kabul to find mutually acceptable options for resolving the current situation on the border.”
