TASHKENT, October 22. /TASS/. The Taliban (outlawed in Russia) are staying true to their word and are ensuring security in Afghanistan’s areas bordering Uzbekistan, so Tashkent has no plans to set up accommodation facilities for refugees from that country, since it is not necessary, Uzbek Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov said in an interview with Russian journalists on Friday.
"They have promised and so far are completely safeguarding security in border areas, in Balkh province, [the city of] Mazar-i-Sharif," the minister said, adding that the Taliban guaranteed security for implementation of major economic projects in the region.
"There is no influx of refugees, no refugees at all. We initially announced that we would not be hosting refugees," he said. "We are not setting up and will not set up any special facilities for refugees in our country."
The Uzbek foreign minister recalled that a Taliban delegation headed by Abdul Salam Hanafi, deputy prime minister of Afghanistan’s interim government, had recently visited Termez.
"And we nearly at the same time held negotiations with all members of the interim government," the minister noted, specifying that they touched upon energy, transport, border security, and other issues, "up to assistance in the reconstruction of infrastructures."
"We closely followed [the situation in Afghanistan] and established contacts with almost all the major forces in Afghanistan, including the Taliban, back in the 1990s. And our analysis of recent years showed that the Taliban were not only a major part and a powerful force inside Afghanistan, in Afghan society, but that the Taliban would eventually come to power. We have been prepared for that and have been working with them in recent years," Kamilov said, adding that those contacts had been open.