Russia pledges broader Afghanistan ties, says US should help rebuild

(Reuters) - Sergei Shoigu, the secretary of Russia's powerful Security Council, told Afghanistan's Taliban leaders on Monday that Moscow wanted to help achieve a durable peace in the country, Russian news agencies reported.

Shoigu, a former defence minister, also said the U.S. should play a leading role in rebuilding Afghanistan in view of its many years of military involvement in the country.

Taliban leaders asked Shoigu to help them ease the pressure imposed by U.S. sanctions against the Kabul government, according to the Russian news agency reports.

Shoigu headed a Russian delegation that held talks with senior officials in Kabul, including deputy prime ministers and the defence and interior ministers.

"Let me confirm our readiness to establish a constructive political dialogue between our countries and among the goals would be providing an impulse for the process of a settlement among Afghans," the agencies quoted him as saying.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has prompted President Vladimir Putin to pivot towards Asia and the rest of the non-Western world amid what the Kremlin says amounts to an economic blockade by the U.S. and its European allies.

On Monday, Moscow said it will consider deploying short- and intermediate-range missiles in Asia if the U.S. deploys such missiles to the same region.

Shoigu said the U.S., which hurriedly withdrew its forces from Afghanistan in 2021 after 20 years of involvement, should take on the obligation of helping rebuild the country.

"Again we have the theme of the United States, which robs everyone around them," he was quoted as saying.

"We're talking here about returning assets, funds which belong to Afghans and which, so it appears, they are not about to return, as in many other countries, like Libya and Syria. In my view, the United States should be the main entity to invest in the rebuilding of Afghanistan."

Abdul Ghani Baradar, Afghanistan's Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs, told Shoigu the Taliban administration needed Moscow's help to ease the burden of Western sanctions.

"We have tried to ensure conditions for a growth in exports of Afghan goods and a growth in foreign investment," he was quoted as saying.

The U.S. and Western countries had applied pressure on the Taliban after it took control of Afghanistan in 2021, he said, referring to asset freezes and travel bans against Taliban leaders.

"We are therefore waiting for the Russian Federation to help us neutralise this pressure."

SOVIET LEGACY IN AFGHANISTAN

Russia lives with the legacy of nine years of Soviet involvement in Afghanistan bolstering a government friendly to Moscow and resisting anti-communist guerrillas. About 15,000 Soviet troops died in the conflict.

Russia's Foreign Ministry said last month a decision had been taken to remove the Taliban from a list of terrorist organisations, but legal procedures need to be put in place.

Shoigu pointed to cooperation in extracting minerals as a prime example of proposed economic cooperation.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksei Overchuk told Taliban officials that Russia wanted to participate in a project to create a trans-Afghan railway.

(Reporting by Ron Popeski; Editing by Lidia Kelly and Lincoln Feast.)