The former president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, has visited Russia. As part of the visit he met the head of the country, Vladimir Putin. At a press conference the Middle Eastern politician spoke about the aims of his visit and ways out of the crisis in the region.
First of all, Hamid Karzai noted that Russia is a neighbor for Afghanistan and tjat Russia speaks about Afghanistan as a closest neighbor: “However, it speaks about it from a practical point of view, from the point of view of historical relations, in terms of mutual exchange between the two countries for a long period of time, and particularly in terms of the threats towards our two countries, including the situation that is happening in Afghanistan. So what happens in Afghanistan directly influences Russia. What happens in Russia directly influences Afghanistan.”
The former president of Afghanistan is sure that the threat of terrorism exists in both countries: “It threatens us all. Both you and us. Therefore, opposition to extremism and radicalism in Afghanistan is in the long-term interests of both countries. But you should bear in mind that Russia has no alternative, that’s why it is taking part in opposing extremism in Afghanistan, from the point of view of safety in Russia, in Afghanistan and in the region in general.”
Karzai said that at the meeting with the Russian president they discussed his special proposal with Putin and Minister Sergei Lavrov: “Russia and Afghanistan should mutually participate on a bilateral basis in order to oppose extremism and the threats of extremism. Wherever threats appear. As a rule, they are external sources. On the one hand, greater participation and cooperation between Russia and China, on the other hand, Russia and India. The three countries in the region in Afghanistan will play an important role. That is, it will be a complete picture of participation. This is necessary. This is bilateral participation and regional participation.”
“The military situation in Afghanistan has not changed since the attacks in Afghanistan in 2005 and up to now. The presence of the US and NATO and other Western countries gave us visible results,” Karzai said. “Firstly, we are thankful for that, we are happy that Afghanistan was provided social and economic assistance. It helped us to improve the standards of living, education, the quality of roads, the economic infrastructure. And because of this, today Afghanistan is much more stable and a better country than it was in 2001, or 2002. We are grateful to the United States and its allies – Japan and other countries which helped us.”
At the same time, despite gratitude for this, the former president noted that Afghanistan is not satisfied with the terms of military involvement in the country: “This military involvement did not bring safety to the people of Afghanistan. They continue to suffer, die, lose their property. This has been taking place for a long period of time. We disagree with it. And you've probably heard about this disagreement, because it was spread in the international media. Now the US and its allies must speak frankly about the problems they encountered here. If we think that they have difficulties with the struggle from the viewpoint of fighting terrorism in Afghanistan and in the region, they have to explain to us why they have these failures. And if they failed, they should seek help from such countries as Russia, which can have serious influence, as well as countries such as China, and others. And if they believe that this is not a failure, they should explain the current situation to us. If this is a failure. Why is extremism going on here? Why do they continue to attack? It is time for a very frank conversation about the difficulties, and we have to find ways of solving this problem and cooperating with other major countries that can assist and help us.”
