MOSCOW: Russia will host the Pakistan, United States and China next week for talks on Afghanistan, the Kremlin’s envoy in Kabul told news agencies.
News agencies cited Zamir Kabulov as saying the meeting would take place on Tuesday and the countries “will try to work out a common position on the changing situation in Afghanistan.”
He added the Taliban had confirmed their attendance at a separate session of talks next Wednesday but had yet to announce the members of their delegation.
Kabulov also maintained he did not expect any major breakthrough at talks with the Afghan faction.
“We do not expect any breakthroughs,” the RIA news agency cited Kabulov as saying. “We understand that this is a long process.”
Moscow hosted an international conference on Afghanistan in March at which Russia, the United States, China and Pakistan released a joint statement calling on the then-warring Afghan sides to reach a peace deal and curb violence.
Since then, the United States and its allies have withdrawn their troops after 20 years on the ground, the Taliban seized power and the previous government collapsed.
Russia is now worried about the potential for fallout in the wider region and the possibility of Islamist militants infiltrating the former Soviet republics of Central Asia, which Moscow views as its southern defensive buffer.
Since the Taliban takeover, Moscow has held military exercises in Tajikistan and bolstered hardware at its military base there.
