Sergey Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, during the sixth Moscow Format Consultative Meeting on Afghanistan, emphasized the importance of pragmatic talks with Afghanistan's interim government.
Lavrov said that engaging with the interim Afghan authorities is necessary for the region's security and economic development.
Sergey Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, said: "Pragmatic dialogue between Moscow and Kabul is essential. We believe that maintaining constructive dialogue with the current Afghan government is in the interest of security, economic development, and achieving national solidarity in this country."
In his speech, Lavrov said that Moscow would continue to develop political and economic relations with Afghanistan.
He stressed the need to release Afghanistan's frozen assets and called on Western countries to lift sanctions on the interim government.
Lavrov said: "The United States continues to illegally hold Afghanistan's national assets and imposes harsh sanctions on its banking sector. Once again, we call on Western countries to lift sanctions against the Taliban."
Amir Khan Muttaqi, the acting Foreign Minister, also spoke at this meeting, saying that over the past three years, the Islamic Emirate has given special attention to fighting terrorist groups, and now Afghanistan's soil is not being used against any country.
Muttaqi also expressed concern about ISIS activity outside Afghanistan and urged countries to prevent ISIS recruitment of their citizens.
The acting Foreign Minister said: "Taking this opportunity, we ask all regional countries to cooperate in preventing ISIS from recruiting their citizens and sending them to Afghanistan and other countries to carry out destructive operations."
In another part of his speech, Muttaqi dismissed the concerns of some countries about threats originating from Afghanistan, saying they are baseless.
According to him, these concerns are based on unreliable information.
Amir Khan Muttaqi said: "Representatives of some countries, in the UN Security Council or the media, express concern about threats from Afghan soil. These statements are completely unfounded, and we believe they stem from a lack of information about Afghanistan or the distortion of information by disruptive elements that have reached international organizations."
This comes as, in the fifth Moscow Format Consultative Meeting, the emphasis was placed on forming an inclusive government, fighting terrorist groups, respecting human rights, especially the right to work and education for women in Afghanistan.
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