MOSCOW, January 31. /TASS/. A number of countries, including Japan, are gearing up to revive the work of their diplomatic missions in Afghanistan, and Moscow welcomes such steps by international partners, Russian Special Presidential Envoy for Afghanistan and Director of the Foreign Ministry’s Second Asia Department Zamir Kabulov said in an interview with TASS.
"We are closely monitoring these issues. We heard that a similar prospect was also announced in Japan. On the whole, we welcome such steps by [our] international partners, which indicate the gradual normalization of the situation in Afghanistan, while also laying the groundwork for restoring ties between the country’s new leadership and [its] external partners," he said.
After the United States announced the pullout of its troops from Afghanistan last spring, the Taliban radical militant group (outlawed in Russia) launched a large-scale operation to establish control over the war-torn country. On August 15, President of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani, fled the country, and the radicals swept into Kabul without encountering any resistance. On September 6, the Taliban declared that it had established control over all of Afghanistan, and on September 7 announced the line-up of the interim cabinet, whose legitimacy has not yet been recognized by any country. In connection with this, Western countries evacuated their citizens and embassy staff.