Moscow, Dec 31 (IANS) Russia said Wednesday NATO continues to bear responsibility for maintaining security in Afghanistan after it withdraws troops from the country.
“Obviously, the ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) activities have failed to stabilise the situation in Afghanistan for the past 13 years,” Xinhua quoted Russian foreign ministry statement as saying.
“Multi-dimensional security threats, including religious extremism, terrorism, and drug crimes, which the mission has fought since 2001, not only continue to exist, but have a tendency to increase,” it added.
Moscow said NATO still bears a great share of responsibility for training Afghan police and soldiers and for maintaining security in Afghanistan.
Zamir Kabulov, Russian special presidential envoy to Afghanistan said that following the end of the ISAF mission, armed groups of extremists, including the Islamic State, could spill into Central Asian countries such as Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan in early 2015.
He said the timing for the ISAF withdrawal was “extremely inconvenient” and accused the Western coalition of having done nothing substantial to bolster Afghanistan’s economy since 2001.
