Russian special envoy Zamir Kabulov met with Hina Rabbani Khar, Pakistan's State Minister of Foreign Affairs, and discussed regional issues including Afghan peace and security, a Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokesperson said.

Pakistan's Khar said that Afghanistan due to its location has an important role in achieving its full potential in socio-economic development and regional connectivity and urged the international community to continue extending assistance and support.

“Underscoring that a peaceful neighborhood remained a strategic imperative for Pakistan, the Minister of State stressed that Afghanistan, with its location as a bridge between Central and South Asia, was central towards achieving the full potential of socio-economic development and regional connectivity. The Minister of State reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment to work with other regional countries towards this end,” the statement reads.

The Islamic Emirate’s spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, said that they are willing to foster good relations with regional and world countries.

“We have moderate engagements with all of the countries. We don’t want to have good engagement with one country and a different engagement with another country. We want to have good engagement with all countries, whether neighbors or in the region, or Islamic countries or even European and Western countries,” he said.

“Pakistan and Russia have stressed the importance of practical and political engagement with the caretaker government of Afghanistan,” said Tahir Khan, a journalist.

This comes as some political analysts believe that Moscow and Islamabad can play an important role in the improvement of the Islamic Emirate’s political relations with the international community.

“This is not a new word, the Russians, Pakistan and even the people in the region have stressed that there should be engagement with Taliban,” said Wahid Faqiri, a political analyst.

Russia and Pakistan have diplomatic relations with Afghanistan but none of these countries have yet recognized the Islamic Emirate.