NEW DELHI, November 10./TASS/. Over 18 million people are starving in Afghanistan and the country is on the brink of a humanitarian crisis, Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev told Russian journalists in New Delhi after multilateral consultations on Afghanistan on Wednesday. 

"Afghanistan is on the brink of a humanitarian crisis. Drought has continued for several years, food prices are growing, and already over 18 million people are starving," Patrushev said.

"Meanwhile, instead of recognizing their responsibility for the collapse of the Afghan economy and the social sector, the US and its allies continue to contribute to the further degradation of the situation through the economic isolation of Afghanistan," the security chief stressed.

He also stressed that the surging numbers of refugees from Afghanistan were a threat to regional stability. "We see serious risks of the penetration of terrorist and extremist elements, as well as drug dealers disguised as refugees or Afghans who cooperated with the West, to the territory of the neighboring countries to Central Asia and then to Russia," he said.

India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan took part in a regional dialogue on security in Afghanistan on November 10. They were represented by national security advisors or secretaries of security councils. Russia was represented by Security Council chief Nikolai Patrushev.