ASTANA, December 15. /TASS/. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has talked to his Afghan counterpart Abdullah Abdullah on the sidelines of a meeting of the Council of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization(SCO) held in Astana and expressed hope that cooperation between Russia and Afghanistan would continue in future.

The Russian prime minister, above all, wished success to his Afghan counterpart who became prime minister in the outgoing year. "A meeting of the heads of government of the SCO states offers a good opportunity to discuss both inter-regional and bilateral problems," Medvedev said. He expressed hope that “Russia and Afghanistan would maintain good relations and continue cooperation in future”.

For his part, Prime Minister Abdullah reminded of strong support that Russia had earlier given to the people of Afghanistan, and expressed hope that bilateral cooperation would continue.

At the presidential election held in Afghanistan in the outgoing year Abdullah gained 45% of votes in his support, but as result of an agreement, Abdullah reached with his main rival in the presidential campaign Ashraf Ghani, Abdullah dropped out from the presidential race and occuipied the post of the head official of the executive power of Afganistan — an analogue of the post of a prime minister.