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Afghanistan hopes to raise level of diplomatic ties with Russia — acting Foreign Minister

Earlier on Friday, Director of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) Alexander Bortnikov announced that the work to remove the Taliban movement from the list of terrorist organizations is in the final stages in Russia

MOSCOW, October 4. /TASS/. Afghanistan is seeking to strengthen ties with Russia, develop trade and hopes to raise the level of diplomatic relations, Amir Khan Muttaqi, Foreign Minister in the interim government of Afghanistan formed by the radical Taliban movement (banned in Russia) said.

"The exchange of delegations between Afghanistan and Russia is becoming increasingly intensive. A number of high-ranking delegations from our country took part in various events on the territory of the Russian Federation. We note the growth of trade turnover between our countries and hope to raise the level of diplomatic relations," he told reporters following a meeting of the Moscow format of consultations on Afghanistan.

Earlier on Friday, Director of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) Alexander Bortnikov announced that the work to remove the Taliban movement from the list of terrorist organizations is in the final stages in Russia.

"We can see that the Taliban is ready to fight the most dangerous wing of the Islamic State (IS), ISIS-K, which is still getting material support from the West which uses the terrorist group’s capacity to carry out subversive false-flag operations on our soil," the FSB chief stressed at a meeting of the Council of Heads of National Security Enforcement Agencies and Special Services of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in Astana.

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Middle East conflict

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