Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on Wednesday said the mission of the United States and NATO in Afghanistan has failed and the situation in Afghanistan is not in control of the Ashraf Ghani government.
This remark comes amid stalled intra-Afghan negotiation and the Taliban's growing grip over the war-torn country.
Addressing the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) meeting, Shoigu said the latest developments in Afghanistan's border areas and "the massive exodus of Afghans" to Tajikistan and Uzbekistan prove that agreements between the US and the Taliban "are not being implemented".
Sputnik quoted Shoigu as saying that the situation in Afghanistan "is rapidly deteriorating and is practically out of control of the authorities. Taliban already control most of the territory."
"Of particular concern is the strengthening of the positions of ISIS and other international terrorist organizations, which has led to an increase in the threat of their penetration into neighboring countries," Shoigu added.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, who is also at Dushanbe, met with his Belarusian counterpart Lieutenant General Viktor Khrenin on the sidelines of the SCO Defence Ministers' Meeting in Dushanbe.
"Raksha Mantri Shri @rajnathsingh met Minister of Defence of the Republic of Belarus Lieutenant General Viktor Khrenin on the sidelines of the SCO Defence Ministers' Meeting in Dushanbe, today," said Bharat Bhushan Babu, Defence Ministry's Principal Spokesperson.
Rajnath Singh is in Dushanbe to attend the annual meeting of the Defence Ministers of member states. Singh's address at the meeting is slated for today.
( With inputs from ANI )
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