Lavrov: Russia backs NATO bid to bring stability to Afghanistan

Mar 16, 2009, 13:38 GMT

Kabul - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in Kabul on Monday that his country was allowing cargo supplies for NATO forces in Afghanistan through its territory to cooperate with the stabilization of the war-torn country.

Lavrov arrived in Kabul on Monday on a one-day trip to meet with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, his Afghan counterpart, Rangin Dadfar Spanta and other Afghan leaders including members of the parliament.

'Terrorism and drug trafficking are the main obstacles before the peace and stability in Afghanistan,' Lavrov told reporters through an interpreter in a press conference in Kabul.

To cooperate in that fight Russia decided to allow the overland transit of non-military supplies for NATO and US-led forces that are fighting the Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan, he said.

Following several attacks by Taliban-led insurgents against NATO military supplies in Pakistan, the alliance had been looking for alternative supply routes for some 70,000 international troops in Afghanistan.

The first NATO supplies crossed Russian territory by train en route to Afghanistan earlier this month.

Speaking at the same press gathering, Spanta said that the two countries had historical ties, and thanked Russia for its assistance in reconstruction and energy with Afghanistan.

'The Russian Federation is one of the important, big and powerful countries of the world and Afghanistan believes that it will be impossible to struggle against the regional problems and bring peace without cooperation with Russia,' Spanta said.

Spanta and Lavrov also said on Monday that their countries had signed an intergovernmental agreement on cooperation against drugs.

Afghanistan produces more than 90 per cent of the world's opium and is the major supplier of heroin used in Russia.