1206-4-11-2000
Unofficial translation from Russian
PRESS RELEASE
On November 3 a meeting of the member states of the Group of Neighbors and Friends of Afghanistan (the Six-Plus-Two Group) was held in New York with the participation of the high-ranking representatives of Russia, the United States, Iran, China, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
The meeting participants welcomed the agreement signed by the United Front and the Taliban Movement to enter without preliminaries a dialogue under the aegis of the UN Secretary General or his personal representative in Afghanistan with a view to resolving the conflict. Now it is necessary to put this agreement on a practical plane.
The member states of the Six-Plus-Two Group reaffirmed their commitment to a peaceful political settlement of the Afghan conflict in accordance with the previously adopted resolutions and decisions of the UN General Assembly and Security Council. It is of basic importance that they also confirmed the central role of the UN in Afghan settlement, which the Six-Plus-Two Group is called upon to bolster with its more vigorous actions.
In the course of the meeting the Russian side particularly stressed the need for the UN Security Council to impose additional targeted sanctions against the Taliban Movement, continuing to grossly ignore the well-known demands of the international community and openly supporting international terrorism and the illicit traffic in drugs and violating the rules of international humanitarian law. The Russian Federation will continue making an energetic and constructive contribution to the international efforts at a settlement in Afghanistan within the framework of the UN, the Six-Plus-Two Group and in other appropriate formats.