SAMARKAND, April 13. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will take part in the fourth ministerial conference of Afghanistan’s neighboring countries scheduled to be held in the Uzbek city of Samarkand on Thursday.

Apart from Russia, the meeting will also involve Iran, China, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, the meeting’s agenda will include discussion of the steps that the countries of the region need to take to facilitate the political settlement process in Afghanistan, and stabilize the humanitarian, social and economic situation. The parties may also touch upon Moscow’s idea of creating a five-party G5 platform to resolve the Afghan issue, which would bring together Russia, China, India, Iran and Pakistan.

Russian President Vladimir Putin pointed out earlier that the situation in Afghanistan had not improved after the withdrawal of US troops and international terrorist organizations were stepping up their activities in the country. Putin emphasized that Russia was concerned about attempts to exploit the situation in Afghanistan, where "non-regional countries build and expand infrastructure facilities, which they are going to create under the guise of fighting international terrorism." The head of state stressed, however, that these countries "are not doing anything that would be required for a genuine fight against global terrorism." Beijing has also expressed concern about the threat of terrorism.

The Russian Foreign Ministry also said that the meeting’s participants would pay special attention to regional economic integration and the implementation of transport and energy projects together with Kabul based on the previous agreements. According to media reports, the Taliban’s interim government announced at the end of last year that work to develop the Trans-Afghan railway project, worth $5 bln, had been completed. It’s also possible that the parties would discuss gas supplies. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said last December that Russia might send its natural gas to Afghanistan and Pakistan.

After the United States announced plans for its troop pullout from Afghanistan in 2021, the Taliban (outlawed in Russia) embarked on a large-scale operation to take the country under its control. On August 15, 2021, Taliban fighters swept into Kabul without encountering any resistance and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani stepped down and fled the country. The US completed its troop withdrawal in September 2021, ending its almost 20-year-long presence in the country.