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Russia to continue efforts to involve Taliban in direct negotiations with Kabul - Lavrov

According to Lavrov, heads of ministries supported Afghan President call for a direct dialogue with the Taliban members

© AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko

ALMATY, June 11. /TASS/. Moscow will continue efforts to involve the radical Taliban movement (outlawed in Russia) in direct talks with Kabul, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said following the meeting of CSTO foreign ministers on Monday, adding though that those efforts have failed so far.

According to Russia’s top diplomat, "together with normalizing the military situation in Afghanistan" heads of ministries supported Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s call for a direct dialogue with the Taliban members.

"Russia has long advocated for this kind of dialogue, the Taliban members are part of the Afghanistan’s society. Provided that they abandon a military approach to defending their interests, they should be made direct participants of the political process," he said. "So far the Taliban members have not demonstrated readiness to this kind of dialogue, but we will continue our efforts, particularly on the back of today’s agreements between the CSTO foreign ministers," the minister added.

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Sergey Lavrov CSTO

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