Russia hosts Afghan Taliban for talks after warning against IS threat
Oct 20, 2021: Russia is hosting talks in Moscow on Wednesday with the Taliban, which is seeking to increase its influence in Central Asia and pushing for action against Islamic State (IS) militants.
ISIS has accumulated influence in unstable Afghanistan for many years.
The talks, involving officials from 10 countries, including China and Pakistan, are one of the Taliban’s most important international meetings since taking power in mid-August. It comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that ISIS fighters were gathering in Afghanistan to sow discord with Russia in the former Soviet republic.
Veteran Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will address the gathering. The Taliban delegation is led by Deputy Prime Minister Abdul Salam Hanafi, a senior figure in the new Afghan leadership who led talks with the European Union and the United States last week.
Previously they held talks in Ankara between the Taliban and Turkish officials. Brussels has pledged one billion euros ( 1.2 billion) to avoid a humanitarian crisis following the group’s takeover.
Russia’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday that one of the goals of the Moscow summit was to “strengthen the international community’s efforts to end the humanitarian crisis.”
Moscow also said that the formation of a “inclusive government” would be on the agenda, and a joint statement was expected to be issued after the parties to the talks. Moscow contacted the Taliban and hosted its representatives in Moscow several times in recent years.
Senior Russian officials, including Putin, have been raising other security concerns since the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan and almost 20 years after the withdrawal of foreign troops. The Russian president warned last week that about 2,000 fighters loyal to the extremist Islamic State group had gathered in northern Afghanistan, adding that their leaders had disguised themselves as refugees in neighboring Central Asian countries.
Lavrov also warned that drug trafficking from Afghanistan had reached “unprecedented” levels, a concern during the Kremlin’s meetings with other Central Asian countries and China.
Despite contacting the Taliban, Russian officials, including Putin, have made it clear in recent weeks that Moscow is not moving to formally recognize the government.
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