Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Afghanistan “remains one of the most acute security challenges in the region”.
Putin said at the sixth Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia that Afghanistan remained a security challenge because it had proved unable to independently solve problems of terrorism after a long but fruitless presence of the United States in the country.
“Unfortunately, Afghanistan remains one of the most acute security challenges for our region. My colleagues have already spoken about it today.
`After over 20 years of military presence of the United States and NATO, and the failure of their policies, the country has proved unable to independently solve problems related to terrorist threats,” Putin said.
In this regard, the Russian leader recalled the explosion at the Russian embassy in Kabul in September and a series of “continuous bloody terrorist attacks” across the state.
Putin urged the international community to jointly promote the economic recovery of Afghanistan to normalize the situation in the country.
“First of all, we call for compensating for the damage caused to Afghans during the years of occupation and unfreezing the illegally blocked Afghan assets,” the Russian president said.
It would also be useful to involve the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and its regional anti-terrorist structures in the work in Afghanistan, Putin added.
The Taliban (under UN sanctions over terrorism) came to power in Afghanistan in August 2021, which resulted in the collapse of the U.S.-backed civilian government.
The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have suspended financial aid, which previously accounted for nearly 75 per cent of Afghanistan’s public expenditure, while the U.S. has frozen billions of dollars in assets belonging to the Afghan Central Bank.
The introduction of such restrictive measures against the country has only exacerbated the deepening economic and humanitarian crises faced by the population after the Taliban’s rise to power.
The country also remains especially vulnerable to security challenges, terrorist threats.
The Taliban have been battling a local network of the Islamic State terrorist group (IS, banned in Russia), which is believed to be behind the majority of bomb explosions in the country.
According to the Taliban, the IS presence in Afghanistan is small, but it continues carrying out attacks on civilians and police.
Sputnik/NAN
