MOSCOW. Aug 19 (Interfax) - Russia stands for a nationwide dialogue among all political forces in Afghanistan that will lead to the formation of a new government, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
"Even when Afghanistan was engulfed in a civil war, we affirmed the need for an urgent shift to a countrywide dialogue involving all opposing Afghan forces, as well as all ethnic and confessional groups in Afghanistan. We're making the same call again, now that the Taliban [banned in Russia] have de facto come to power in Kabul and the majority of cities and provinces in Afghanistan: there should be a national dialogue that will allow the formation of a representative government," Lavrov said at a press conference in Moscow.
Over recent years, Moscow has been trying to settle the Afghan issue in the extended troika (Russia, the United States, China, and Pakistan) and the Moscow format, which, "as everyone agrees, is the most effective mechanism for the promotion of external support for the Afghan settlement process," he said.