Noting that the international community should maintain contact with the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, however, said there should be no haste to recognise the interim government led by the group officially.
"There should be no haste to recognise the Taliban officially. We are aware that they should be cooperated with, but there is no place for haste," TASS quoted Putin as saying at the CIS summit (the Commonwealth of Independent States, an assembly of post-Soviet republics).
Putin stressed that the Taliban's interim government "regrettably failed to reflect the entire diversity of Afghan society".
It has been almost two months since the Taliban captured Kabul after an aggressive and rapid advance against Afghanistan government forces after the US military drawdown. Meanwhile, the Taliban announced its interim government last month.
"At the same time, an intention has been announced to conduct general elections. Measures are being taken to restore the operation of public administration bodies to normal," Putin said, adding, "within the CIS framework we will certainly keep track of whether these pledges are backed up by real action."
"It is necessary to support the process of intra-Afghan reconciliation and to promote normalisation in that country in general," TASS said quoting Putin.
"We all can contribute to the resumption of activities by the enlarged troika - Russia, the United States and China with Pakistan taking part (I would ask you to support this), and also the Moscow format, in which the region's key countries, including Central Asian ones are involved," Putin further said.
He added, "We are moving towards holding meetings within the framework of these mechanisms in Moscow in the near future, in October."
Earlier, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Moscow was expecting the arrival of a large Taliban delegation for consultations on Afghanistan next week. Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that preparations for contacts on Afghanistan were underway, TASS reported.
The Moscow format meeting is due on October 20. The Moscow format was introduced in 2017 on the basis of the six-party mechanism for consultations between special representatives from Russia, Afghanistan, China, Pakistan, Iran, and India.
( With inputs from ANI )
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