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SCO countries hope Taliban will keep promises to fight drug trafficking — Russian envoy

"One of the terms that the SCO member nations would like the Taliban to comply with, is exactly the pledges that they give from the point of view of not letting instability spill into the neighboring states," Bakhtiyor Khakimov noted

MOSCOW, September 23. /TASS/. The countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) expect that the Taliban (outlawed in Russia) will keep their promises to ensure security, and to fight against terrorism and drug trafficking, Russia's special presidential envoy for SCO affairs, Bakhtiyor Khakimov, told an online briefing on Thursday.

"One of the commitments, that as far as we know the Taliban assumed during the negotiations with all parties that they conduct negotiations, first of all, let me reiterate, on the agreement with the US of February last year, is to create a transitional government and implement commitments on the battle against terrorism, on ensuring security, as well as on the battle against drug trafficking," the ambassador-at-large of the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

"One of the terms that the SCO member nations would like the Taliban to comply with, is exactly the pledges that they give from the point of view of not letting instability spill into the neighboring states, readiness to jointly curb the actions of radical terrorist groups, prevent drug trafficking and cross-border crime," he said.

The Taliban launched a large-scale operation for control of Afghanistan after the United States declared its troop pullout earlier this year. On August 15, Afghanistan’s then-President Ashraf Ghani stepped down and fled the country, while the Taliban swept into Kabul without encountering any resistance. In early September, the Taliban declared that the entire territory of the county was under their control and formed an interim government.