KABUL: Russia’s foreign minister Sergey Lavrov has said that his country is trying to prevent the spillover of terrorism from Afghanistan into other countries.
According to a report by The News, Lavrov told Russia's state-owned channel, Rossiya 24, that the main task of the Russian Federation is to prevent its Central Asian allies from becoming destabilised after the Taliban took power in Afghanistan in August. Lavrov emphasised that the stability of Central Asian countries is a priority for Russia.
“The main thing for us is their stability, since we do not have borders with our Central Asian allies, there is a visa-free regime with almost everyone,” Lavrov said.
Sergey Lavrov further said that it is necessary to suppress the threats inside Afghanistan. “This is the necessity to prevent destabilisation of neighbouring countries and the influx of terrorist and drug threats from Afghanistan, the necessity to nip these threats in the bud inside Afghanistan,” he added.
The Ministry of Interior said Afghanistan’s soil is not being used to threaten the security of any country, and the Islamic Emirate is committed to strictly combatting the drug trade.
Last week, Russia had called on countries neighbouring Afghanistan not to host US or NATO military forces after they pulled out of Afghanistan earlier this year.
"We call on Afghanistan's neighbouring countries not to allow a military presence of US and NATO forces that plan to move there after leaving Afghanistan's territory," Lavrov had said.