The report highlights that the Afghan delegation is headed by the acting Foreign Minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, and is made up of several officials from the Afghan Foreign Ministry.

Previously, the spokeswoman for Russian diplomacy, Maria Zakharova, announced that the consultations would take place behind closed doors and would focus on promoting national reconciliation in Afghanistan and on the interaction between the Afghan government and the states of the region in the fight against terrorism and drugs.

Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov is expected to meet with his Afghan counterpart on the sidelines of the consultations to address key issues of bilateral cooperation between Moscow and Kabul.

The first meeting of the “Moscow format” aimed at contributing to the peace and national reconciliation process in Afghanistan was held on April 14, 2017, with the participation of deputy foreign ministers and special representatives from 11 countries (Afghanistan, China, Iran, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan). Since then, five more meetings have been held, the last of which was in Kazan in September 2023.

In Russia, the Taliban movement was designated as a terrorist movement and outlawed by a Supreme Court ruling on February 14th, 2003.

At the end of last May, Russian presidential envoy to Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov confirmed that the Foreign Ministry and the Justice Ministry recommended that the Kremlin remove the Taliban from the list of terrorist organizations in Russia.

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