Differences between Islamabad and Kabul on Monday stalled the adoption of a joint statement by the Moscow format — a multilateral diplomatic consultation mechanism that seeks to coordinate the approaches of immediate neighbours on Afghanistan.
The Russian news agency TASS quoted President Vladimir Putin’s special representative (SR) for Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, as saying: “When drafting the final joint statement, we encountered one problem — our Afghan and Pakistani colleagues didn’t see eye to eye. We regret this.”Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have been strained over the past year, with several rounds of cross-border clashes after Islamabad carried out air strikes within Afghanistan in the name of targeting terror camps.
“Our Afghan colleagues felt that this year, in the text (of the draft joint statement), Afghanistan was mentioned too often in a terrorist context. To be honest, this surprised us, because the same wording and expressions were used in last year’s text (after) the seventh meeting. Nevertheless, the Afghans believe that the situation in bilateral relations has changed since then, and this year this statement is unacceptable.”The Moscow format can work and continue to exist without this joint statement. But it would be more in line with tradition, more proper. The Moscow format remains as a platform, but it is not a platform for resolving bilateral disagreements; it is a platform for coordinating regional cooperation,” Kabulov said.
Earlier, in his opening remarks at the Moscow format meeting — in which New Delhi was represented by the Indian ambassador to Russia Vinay Kumar — Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov cautioned against any move to deploy Nato infrastructure in Afghanistan or any country in the region. Afghan media quoted him as saying that such deployment was unacceptable under any pretext. He cited historical experience of how foreign military presence in Afghanistan had led to instability and increased conflict.
The Moscow format was established in 2017 as a mechanism for consultations involving SRs of Russia, Afghanistan, India, Iran, China, and Pakistan. It currently has 11 member countries, including Afghanistan
