MOSCOW, April 26./TASS/. Russia wants to move towards the full diplomatic recognition of the new authorities in Afghanistan, represented by the Taliban (outlawed in Russia), if a truly inclusive government is formed there, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a news conference after talks with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
"We want to work towards the full diplomatic recognition of the new authorities in Afghanistan, under the understanding that they will keep their promise and form an inclusive government not only from the ethno-confessional point of view, since they now have Uzbeks, Tajiks and Hazaras in the government, they are all Taliban members politically. But it is the political inclusiveness that should determine our further moves, especially since the Taliban have proclaimed this aim," Lavrov said.
According to the top diplomat, Russia works with other political forces in Afghanistan, including former President Hamid Karzai and former chief of the Afghan High Council for National Reconciliation Abdullah Abdullah. "They are interested in dialogue with the Taliban, and in our contacts with the Taliban movement, we encourage them to having this dialogue launched and continued substantively," Lavrov stressed.
"We have regular contacts with the Taliban via our embassies, via representatives of our departments that consider issues of economic cooperation among other issues," he stressed. The foreign minister reiterated that during the stationing of the Soviet contingent in Afghanistan, over 140 enterprises were built there. "Let me note in parentheses that not a single enterprise was build within 20 years that the NATO coalition was stationed there," he said. "You know what it came down to and how it ended," Lavrov stressed.
On April 6, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the ministry had sent a note to the Afghan Embassy to recognize Jamal Garwal as the charge d’affaires of Afghanistan in Moscow.
"Today, the Russian Foreign Ministry sent a note to the Embassy of Afghanistan on the official recognition of this Afghan diplomat [Jamal Garwal] as charge d’affaires of Afghanistan in Moscow. We regard this as a move towards the resumption of fully-fledged bilateral diplomatic contacts," Zakharova pointed out.