MOSCOW-UNS: A regional security meeting on Afghanistan, hosted by Russia with participation from other regional countries including China and India, has called upon the interim Afghan government to take effective measures to “dismantle” all sorts of terrorist groups based in the country and to ensure that their territory no longer serves as “terrorism hotspot”.
The call for enhanced security measures arose during the fifth Moscow Format Consultations on Afghanistan, which gathered high-ranking officials from Pakistan, China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Representatives of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Turkiye also attended the audience as guests of honour.
The meeting took place in the city of Kazan, Russia on Friday.
Islamabad has repeatedly raised concerns over the use of Afghan soil by militants for cross-border terrorism. In a recent statement, Pakistan Army had blamed Kabul for the uptick in militancy, saying that “safe havens and liberty of action”, along with the latest weapons available to militants from Afghanistan enabled them to carry out attacks inside Pakistan.
The military had said it expected the government in Afghanistan to take action against militants and abide by the Doha agreement.
“The sanctuaries and liberty of action available to the terrorists of proscribed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan and other groups of that ilk in a neighbouring country and availability of latest weapons to the terrorists were noted as major reasons impacting [the] security of Pakistan,” a statement issued by the ISPR had said.
In a statement released by the Russian Foreign Ministry after the meeting concluded, the participants of the meeting expressed deep concern over the challenging security situation in Afghanistan, “primarily due to the intensified activities of terrorist groups, particularly ISIS”.
The countries called on the current Afghan authorities to take effective measures to “dismantle, eliminate and prevent placement of all sorts of terrorist groups based in Afghanistan and to prevent the country from being the terrorism and instability hotspot and spreading to the regional states”.
