All news

Duma speaker arrives in Afghanistan for talks with leadership

Naryshkin is accompanied in his trip to Afghanistan by the first deputy director of the Federal Drug Control Service, Vladimir Kalanda
Russian State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin ITAR-TASS/Stanislav Krasilnikov
Russian State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin
© ITAR-TASS/Stanislav Krasilnikov

KABUL, December 24. /ITAR-TASS/. Russian State Duma lower house Speaker Sergei Naryshkin has arrived in Afghanistan to discuss Russian-Afghan ties, inter-parliamentary relations as well as international issues.

The speaker is scheduled for talks with President Hamid Karzai, as well as the speakers of the upper and lower houses of the Afghan parliament, Fazel Hadi Muslimyar and Abdul Rauf Ibrahimi.

The head of the Duma Committee for CIS Affairs, Eurasian integration and Ties with Compatriots, Leonid Slutsky, who is part of the Russian delegation, told reporters that Naryshkin was visiting Afghanistan not only as the Duma speaker, but also as chairman of the Collective Security Treaty Organization’s (CSTO) Parliamentary Assembly, where Afghanistan has the status of observer since April.

Issues ranging from fight against Afghan drugs to security in Central Asia are discussed with Afghanistan within the CSTO framework, Slutsky said.

Naryshkin is accompanied in his trip to Afghanistan by the first deputy director of the Federal Drug Control Service, Vladimir Kalanda, and Russian president’s special envoy for Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov.