DUSHANBE, July 28. /TASS/. The US-NATO mission in Afghanistan has utterly failed, and the situation there is rapidly deteriorating with the authorities having practically lost control of the situation, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said on Wednesday.
"The developments on the country’s northern border areas and the mass exodus of Afghans into the territory of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan show that the accords between the United States and the Taliban Islamic movement (outlawed in Russia) are not being fulfilled," Shoigu said at a meeting of the defense ministers from the member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).
The situation in Afghanistan "is quickly degrading and has gone out of the authorities’ control, while the Taliban group is already controlling most of the country’s territory," Shoigu pointed out.
"A cause for particular concern is that the ISIL [the former name of the Islamic State terrorist organization outlawed in Russia] and other international terrorist groups are strengthening their positions there, which has increased the danger of their infiltration into neighboring countries. Therefore, we have to state that the US and NATO mission in Afghanistan has failed," Russia’s defense chief said.
Russia’s defense minister earlier pledged that the Russian 201st military base in Tajikistan would provide military assistance to Tajikistan, if the country’s security was endangered by the developments in neighboring Afghanistan.