Russia, China and Pakistan are willing to provide humanitarian aid and economic support to Afghanistan, a spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday after holding talks with Chinese and Pakistani officials.
Moscow is hosting another round of talks on Afghanistan on Wednesday that will include a Taliban team.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said that the Moscow meeting would focus on the establishment of an inclusive government and efforts for a global response to prevent a humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.
The military situation in Afghanistan will be also on the agenda for Wednesday’s meeting, the ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
Participants of the “Moscow format” talks – representatives of 10 countries and the Taliban – plan to make a joint statement after the meeting, the ministry added.
Also on Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Russia would not officially recognize the Taliban regime for now and wanted the group to make good on its promises when it ascended to power in Afghanistan.
Lavrov was speaking in southern Russia ahead of talks in Moscow on Wednesday.
He said the group’s promises included, in particular, those on political and ethnic inclusivity in the make-up of the government.
On Friday, the Kremlin’s envoy to Afghanistan told Russian news agencies that Moscow would host the United States, China and Pakistan next week for talks on Afghanistan.
Zamir Kabulov had said that the meeting would take place on Tuesday and that the countries “will try to work out a common position on the changing situation in Afghanistan”.
The Moscow format, a mechanism set up in 2017 for the Afghanistan issue, includes China, Pakistan, Iran, India, Afghanistan, and other countries.
It has held several rounds of talks in Moscow in 2017 and 2018.
On Monday, the State Department said the United States will not join the talks due to logistical reasons, but it was open to participating in the future.
Moscow hosted a conference on Afghanistan in March this year at which Russia, the US, China and Pakistan released a joint statement, calling on the then-warring Afghan sides to curb violence.
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