Russia said Friday that Afghanistan’s Taliban had made progress against terrorism and drug trafficking but needed to resolve women’s rights issues and create an inclusive government to win recognition for their rule.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov made the remarks a day after participating in a regional conference in Uzbekistan, along with six immediate neighbors of Afghanistan, including China.
“Everyone unanimously agreed that we will continue to develop contacts with the Taliban government. … It preserves the authority and maintains control over the country,” Lavrov told a televised news conference in the Uzbek city of Samarkand.
He reminded the fundamentalist Taliban authorities that they had “voluntarily” pledged to install a representative government in Kabul after seizing power in August 2021 as the United States-led coalition troops withdrew from Afghanistan. Lavrov also pressed the Taliban to resolve the issues of women’s rights to public life and girls’ education.
The Russian chief diplomat dismissed Taliban assertions that the current Afghan dispensation includes ethnic Tajiks and Uzbeks. He said that the Taliban “are the only political force” in the government and representatives of these ethnic groups "are part of the Taliban.”
“All of us are unanimously appealing to the Taliban to resolve all these matters. The United Nations and the international community are watching this,” Lavrov stressed.
"It will be an essential step not only for the de facto recognition of the Taliban government but also for the de jure of the new Afghanistan government to resolve these matters in a prompter fashion,” he added.
A Taliban spokesman Friday rejected calls for an inclusive Afghan government, saying Afghanistan is a free and sovereign nation.
“Afghanistan is governed by honest, sincere and real Afghans. The system of thought is Islamic, and the country is completely independent. There will never be any foreign spies and tried-and-tested burnt pawns here under the pretext of inclusiveness, God willing,” Bilal Karimi, the deputy Taliban spokesman, said on Twitter.
UN review
Thursday’s conference in Samarkand came as the United Nations reviews its presence in the strife-torn South Asian nation after the Taliban barred female staff from working for the world body, drawing a strong international backlash and demands for an immediate removal of the ban.
The U.N. has condemned the unlawful ban on hundreds of its female staff, imposed a week ago, and warned it could push the organization to stop operations in Afghanistan.
The Taliban dismissed the warning Wednesday and defended the ban, saying it is an internal matter that all parties should respect.
Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang told reporters after attending the Uzbekistan-hosted meeting that the restriction on U.N. female staff was a matter of concern for his government. The Chinese foreign ministry posted the transcript of his talk on its website.
“Afghanistan's friendly neighbors, including China, are concerned about Afghanistan's recent policies and measures, and are worried about the possible impact of these measures on the basic rights and interests of Afghan women, the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan and international cooperation,” Qin said.
He stressed the need for the Taliban to respect and protect women’s rights, saying Beijing hoped the Afghan authorities would address the international concerns on the subject. “But it is not the whole of the Afghan issue," he added, "nor is it the core or root cause of the Afghan issue. We cannot turn a blind eye to this issue, and neither can we take care of one thing and lose sight of the other, or evade serious matters."
Afghanistan is home to one of the world's largest humanitarian crises, where the United Nations says 28.3 million people, or two-thirds of the population, need urgent humanitarian assistance.
Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi was also invited to the ministerial conference in Samarkand.
In his speech, Muttaqi told the participants that since taking power 20 months ago, his government has established peace and a "powerful central government" in Afghanistan and has banned narcotics cultivation and trade, setting the stage for a meaningful and mutually beneficial cooperation with the region.
The Taliban chief diplomat did not discuss restrictions imposed on Afghan women's access to work and education but said they “are ready to fulfill our obligations as a responsible government.” He did not elaborate.
The fundamentalist leaders have restricted women from accessing higher education, government jobs and public spaces. Female aid workers have been banned from working for national and international nongovernmental organizations. Girls are also not allowed to attend school beyond sixth grade.
China and Russia are among several regional and neighboring countries that have kept their embassies in Kabul after the Taliban takeover. But no foreign government has recognized the Taliban authorities, citing curbs on Afghan women and concerns stemming from other human rights abuses.
