MOSCOW, October 20. /TASS/. Moscow has urged the Taliban to stay committed to its pronounced pledge to refrain from using the territory of Afghanistan against third countries further on, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a Moscow format meeting on Afghanistan on Wednesday.
"We are calling upon the Taliban movement to strictly follow the policy of preventing the territory of Afghanistan from being used against the interests of any third counties, first and foremost, Afghanistan’s near neighbors — the Central Asian states. Our friends and allies. For our part we plan to use our own capabilities, including those in the United Nations, the SCO, the CSTO, and other multilateral organizations," he said.
The Moscow format was created in 2017 on the basis of a six-party mechanism of consultations by special envoys from Russia, Afghanistan, India, Iran, China, and Pakistan.
The Taliban movement launched a massive operation for establishing control of Afghanistan after the United States last spring declared its troop pullout. On August 15, Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani left the country. The radicals entered Kabul without encountering any resistance. On September 6, the movement declared it had established control of the whole of the country’s territory and the next day, on September 7 it announced the composition of an interim government, whose legitimacy has not been recognized by any country yet.