Russia says ‘top priority’ to hold Taliban to rights pledges

It is essential Afghanistan’s new Taliban rulers keep their ‘promises’, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

Russia, China, Pakistan, and the United States are working together to ensure Afghanistan’s new Taliban rulers keep their promises, especially to form a genuinely representative government and prevent violence from spreading, Russia’s foreign minister said.

Sergey Lavrov said the four countries are in ongoing contact. He said representatives from Russia, China, and Pakistan recently travelled to Qatar and then to Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, to engage with the Taliban and representatives of “secular authorities” — former President Hamid Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah, who headed the deposed government’s negotiating council with the Taliban.

Lavrov said the interim government announced by the Taliban does not reflect “the whole gamut of Afghan society — ethnoreligious and political forces — so we are engaging in contacts. They are ongoing.”