MOSCOW, July 8. /TASS/. The US withdrawal from Afghanistan seriously complicated the situation in the region, Russian State Duma Committee on Foreign Affairs Chairman Leonid Slutsky said in his Telegram channel Thursday, adding that the Committee will watch the situation closely. 

"The Committee will follow the situation with all our attention while maintaining parliamentary contacts with colleagues from various countries of the region. It is not only Tajikistan that may face a threat, and we don’t even want to talk about the potential negative development of the situation," the senior lawmaker said.

Slutsky noted that the "US withdrawal from Afghanistan has seriously complicated the already complex situation in the region, located in the direct proximity of borders of Russia and its key partners."

In this regard, Slutsky recalled the remarks made by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that, should the Taliban (outlawed in Russia) attack Tajikistan, the situation will be immediately reviewed in the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).

"Russia will fulfill all its obligations under both bilateral and multilateral agreements, including by using its military base as the border between Tajikistan and Afghanistan. The Russian top diplomat spoke about it earlier," he noted.

Slutsky noted that, in the wake of the US withdrawal, Taliban militants rapidly captured the abandoned military bases.

"A logical question arises: what had the US army been doing in this country for all these years, if the extremists had not only not been defeated, but have not been even weakened, apparently? The Western allies were unable to properly train and reinforce the Afghan Armed Forces," Slutsky concluded.

On April 14, US President Joe Biden announced his decision to end the operation in Afghanistan, which has become the longest military campaign in US history. The US started this war in October 2001. The US withdrawal began in May, and the White House expects to finalize it by late August.