Russian FM committed to develop cooperation with Kabul

By Diyar Guldogan

ANKARA

Russia will continue to increase cooperation with Afghanistan in several fields, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Tuesday.

"We reaffirm our commitment to further develop cooperation in security, economic and humanitarian fields," Lavrov said during opening talks with his Afghan counterpart Salahuddin Rabbani.

Lavrov said Russia and Afghanistan were "long-standing close" partners. He also said Moscow supported Kabul's efforts to stabilize the socio-political situation and to fight against terrorism.

Lavrov added Russia supports Afghanistan's full membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

"We support this. We will continue to work with other member states for the approval of its application," he added.

As an observer nation, Afghanistan asked to be a full member of the SCO in 2015. The SCO is dominated by Russia and China. The other full members are Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.

Lavrov also invited Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, India and China for a meeting on Afghanistan, which will be held in Moscow in mid-February.

The minister also said Russia would continue to provide military assistance to Kabul.

Rabbani said they discussed economic cooperation and trade relations.

"In particular, we are interested how to increase oil imports from Russia," Rabbani was quoted as saying by Russia's official TASS news agency.