TASHKENT, August 18. /TASS/. The secretary of Russia’s Security Council Nikolay Patrushev and his Tajik counterpart Nasrullo Mahmudzoda met on Thursday to express concern over the growing activity of terrorist groups in Afghanistan, the Russian Security Council’s press-service said on Thursday.
"Special attention was paid to the situation in Afghanistan. The sides expressed concern about the deepening humanitarian and economic crisis and the growing activity of terrorist groups in that country. They outlined plans for deepening cooperation between Russia and Tajikistan on the anti-terrorist track and in the field of military security," the news release reads.
Patrushev and Mahmudzoda also discussed the situation in Ukraine and on the territory of the Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics. "In the conversation with his counterpart Patrushev emphasized the aggressiveness and inhuman actions of the Ukrainian nationalists and military towards the civilian population, in particular, remote mining with Lepestok anti-personnel mines, as a result of which civilians, including children, are maimed and killed," the Russian Security Council’s staff said.
The security councils’ secretaries discussed bilateral cooperation in various fields. "They noted progress in the development of Russian-Tajik relations, as well as the high level of cooperation on major regional and international platforms, such as the CIS, the CSTO and the SCO. They stressed that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s working visit to Tajikistan in June gave a fresh impetus to strengthening allied ties between the two countries," the news release says.