Russia security chief meets Taliban officials in Kabul

KABUL, Afghanistan

Top Russian security official Sergei Shoigu visited Afghan government officials on Monday, assuring them Moscow will soon remove the Taliban from its list of banned organisations, Kabul said.

Since the Taliban surged back to power in 2021 visits by foreign officials have been infrequent because no nation has yet formally recognised the government of the former insurgent group.

Taliban government curbs on women have made them pariahs in many Western nations but Kabul is making increasing diplomatic overtures to its regional neighbours, emphasising economic and security cooperation.

Shoigu, the secretary of Russia's Security Council, met an Afghan cohort in Kabul headed by Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs Abdul Ghani Baradar.

He "expressed Russia's interest in increasing the level of bilateral cooperation with Afghanistan," Baradar's office said in a statement released on social media site X.

"He also announced that, to expand political and economic relations between the two countries, the Islamic Emirate's name would soon be removed from Russia's blacklist."

The Islamic Emirate is the name the Taliban government uses to refer to itself.

Analysts say Moscow may be eying cooperation with Kabul to counter the threat from Islamic State Khorasan (IS-K) -- the Afghan-based branch of the Sunni militant group.

In March, more than 140 people were killed when IS-K gunmen sieged a Moscow concert hall.

Taliban authorities have repeatedly said security is their top domestic priority and have pledged militants staging foreign attacks will be ousted from Afghanistan.

"The Taliban certainly are our allies in the fight against terrorism," Russia's ambassador to Afghanistan, Dmitry Zhirnov, said in July.

"They are working to eradicate terrorist cells."