A Taliban flag is seen in a military position on a hilltop in Kabul, Afghanistan October 7, 2021. November 15 - 14, 2017 - Representatives of the Taliban have confirmed they will take part in talks with Afghanistan in Moscow next week, President Vladimir Putin said his special representative on Afghanistan on Friday.
The official, Zamir Kabulov, said in comments made public by Russian news agencies that the Taliban had confirmed their attendance at the talks next Wednesday however had yet to announce the members of their delegation.
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 Since then, the United States and its allies have seized the territory after 20 years, the Taliban has withdrawn his troops and the previous government collapsed.
Russia is concerned about the potential for fallout in the overall 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.