Lavrov:

US Maintains Contacts with Russia on Afghan Settlement

TEHRAN (defapress) - The United States maintains contacts with Russia on the Afghan conflict settlement and itself initiates them, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

News ID: 75811

Date: 24 February 2019 - 13:50

"Afghanistan is also a direction of the foreign policy agenda, where the Americans maintain contacts with us and themselves initiate them," Lavrov said in an interview with Vietnam Television, China Television and Phoenix Television in the run-up to his visits to China and Vietnam.

The minister recalled that US Special Representative for Afghanistan reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad had held several rounds of talks with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov, while publicly positively assessing Moscow's efforts with regard to the Afghan settlement, including the "Moscow format" of talks, Sputnik reported.

"As you know, the United States is regularly invited to [take part in] this format, but at least during the October meeting, they thought fit to decline the invitation. I am sure that when we go ahead with such meetings, we will continue inviting US representatives," Lavrov added.

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