Moscow meeting urges Taliban to enter into direct talks with Afghan government

Representatives from 11 countries gathered in Moscow on Friday to discuss peace in Afghanistan, where Taliban were urged to abandon fighting.

Afghan Voice Agency(AVA), The conferencefollowed a series of meetings Moscow initiated on Afghanistan. U.S. didn’t participate in the gatheringand Moscow said it didn’t understand why Washington refused to take part.

In a statement, Russian foreign ministry said that the agenda of the gathering was to coordinate regional efforts to promote national reconciliation in Afghanistan.

Citing growing terror activity, the meeting emphasized that the Afghan crisis does not have a military solution and that the only possible way to resolve it is to achieve agreement through political means.

In the meeting, Taliban were urged to abandon fighting in favour of establishing a direct dialogue with the Afghan government.

The participants in the meeting also called on the international community to continue to support Afghanistan in order to stabilize the situation and quickly achieve peace in the country.

The statement from Russian foreign ministry said that an agreement was reached to continue Moscow-initiated consultations on Afghanistan.