Moscow shows it’s back in the ‘Great Game’ by hosting Taliban-Afghan peace talks - washingtonpost

MOSCOW — Russia pledged Friday to use its diplomatic muscle to help spur peace efforts in Afghanistan after hosting Afghan envoys and their Taliban foes — a meeting that Moscow also used to showcase its drive to reassert influence in the region.

Sitting between Afghan representatives and their Taliban rivals, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov played the roles of mediator and experienced hand in Afghanistan’s conflicts.

Russia hosted the landmark talks almost 30 years after it pulled out of Afghanistan in disgrace, ending a decade-long Soviet occupation that was seen as another chapter in what historians called the “great game” by world powers to hold away over Afghanistan and nearby areas.

The United States and other nations have repeatedly failed to stem the fighting that has racked the country almost continuously for four decades.

“Russia stands for preserving the one and undivided Afghanistan, in which all of the ethnic groups that inhabit this country would live side by side peacefully and happily,” Lavrov said, seated between a five-man Taliban delegation and four members of Afghanistan’s High Peace Council, a government-appointed body charged with overseeing the peace process.  

“Russia, as the organizer of this session, sees its role in working together with Afghanistan’s regional partners and friends who have gathered at this table today to extend all possible assistance to facilitate the start of a constructive intra-Afghan dialogue,” he said.

There were no significant breakthroughs during the Moscow meeting, which was attended by representatives of 11 countries, including regional heavyweights China, Iran and Pakistan. But delegates widely acknowledged that the meeting itself was a feat. - Read More

Moscow shows it’s back in the ‘Great Game’ by hosting Taliban-Afghan peace talks

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