BRUSSELS, April; 20./TASS/. Russia and NATO have mutual understanding on the situation in Afghanistan, Russia’s permanent representative to NATO said after a session of the Russia-NATO Council on Wednesday.

"This was the third issue on the agenda of today’s meeting. From the point of view of threats to security, it was a very important exchange of information both for Russia and NATO," Alexander Grushko said. "We received very serious signals from the Alliance that Afghanistan remains one of the key issues on the NATO agenda. The same refers to Russia," he said.

"We are strongly concerned about the development of the situation in that country, be it in security or in social-economic sphere, and we intend to do all we can, including with the use of instruments of collective security to protect our interests, as well as the borders of Tajikistan and other countries of Central Asia with Afghanistan in order to bar extremism from their territory, especially as the terrorist organization Islamic State is spreading," Grushko said.