Moscow Ready To Continue Counterterrorism Dialogue With US, Including On Afghanistan

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 03rd August, 2021) Russia is ready to maintain counterterrorism contacts with the United States, including in the context of Afghanistan, the Russian Foreign Ministry's Department for New Challenges and Threats chief, Vladimir Tarabrin, said in an interview with Sputnik.

"As for counterterrorism contacts with the Americans, including in the context of the Afghan affairs, we are ready for such interaction, but we cannot be more interested in it than our partners are," Tarabrin said.

From 2018-2019, Moscow and Washington maintained a full-fledged cross-agency dialogue on the entire spectrum of counterterrorism issues, but this cooperation was suspended under a contrived pretext at the US initiative, the diplomat recalled.

Nevertheless, Moscow continues pragmatic cooperation with the US Department of States' Bureau of Counterterrorism where this meets Russia's practical interests, Tarabrin added.

"We are ready to continue counterterrorism cooperation, including the exchange of views on Afghanistan, both bilaterally and within multilateral formats if there is mutual interest," Tarabrin concluded.