Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin and his partner XI Jinping has agreed to their countries will increase efforts to fight “threats” that emerged from Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover, said Wednesday.
In phone calls, the two leaders “stated their readiness to increase efforts to fight the threat of terrorism and drug trafficking originating from the Afghanistan region,” Kremlin said in a statement.
They also talked about “the importance of building peace” in Afghanistan and “preventing the spread of instability to adjacent areas”.
Putin and XI “agree to intensify bilateral contacts” and “utilize the potential” of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) caused by the Summit in Tajikistan next month.
Some of the former Soviet Republicans in Central Asia – where Moscow held a military base – sharing the border both with Afghanistan and China.
While Moscow was carefully optimistic about the new leadership in Kabul, Putin had warned Afghan militants who entered neighboring countries as refugees.
Putin also criticized the involvement of external strength in Afghan domestic affairs and said Moscow had “learned lessons” from the invasion during the Soviet decades in the country.
For his part, after the Taliban swept power on August 15, China said it was ready to deepen the “friendly and cooperative relationships” with Afghanistan.