The ambassador of Russia at the UN Security Council called for the release of Afghanistan’s frozen assets.

The Russian deputy permanent representative at the UNSC, Anna Vestinian, expressed criticism of the freezing of the assets.

“It might seem that after numerous calls to the United States and its allies from the Afghans, American academia and civil society, there would be some progress with this issue. Alas, what followed was just a claim about the transfer of Afghan funds to an account in a Swiss bank,” she said. “Reportedly, this money will not be accessible to the Afghan authorities and will be spent on some ephemeral socio-economic and humanitarian projects. We call to return the stolen assets to the Afghan people immediately.”

The Chinese Deputy Ambassador Geng Shuang told the gathering that safeguarding the rights and interests of Afghan women and girls also means providing them with much needed humanitarian assistance.

“In this context, Afghanistan's frozen overseas assets should be used expeditiously for the improvement of Afghan lives and economic reconstruction,” he said. “Noting the recent developments and the statements of the Central Bank of Afghanistan, we call for the full and swift return of these frozen assets to the Afghan people as early as possible, so that they can be effectively used to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan and the humanitarian suffering of the Afghan people.”

Meanwhile, the Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Investment (ACCI) said that the freezing of the Afghan assets have negatively affected the economic situation in the country.

“We hope this money will be handed over to the government and people of Afghanistan—to the government that represents the people of Afghanistan, thus the people can use it as needed,” said Mohammad Younus Momand, acting head of the ACCI.

Earlier the US announced that it would transfer $3.5 billion in Afghan central bank assets into a new Swiss-based trust fund that will be shielded from the Islamic Emirate and used to help stabilize Afghanistan's collapsed economy.