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At SCO Security Heads Meeting, Russia Stakes Out ‘Full-fledged Partnership’ With Taliban-ruled Afghanistan

Russia’s Sergei Shoigu also said that “a return of third-country military infrastructure to Afghanistan or the deployment of new military facilities in neighboring states” would be “unacceptable.”

At a regional security gathering last week in Bishkek, Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu said that Russia was “establishing a full-fledged partnership” with Taliban-ruled Afghanistan and stated Moscow’s opposition to any new third-country military presence in the country. 

On May 14, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member country security council heads met in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, which currently holds the SCO’s rotating chairmanship. 

The SCO’s full members are China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, as well as India and Pakistan (since 2017), Iran (since 2023), and Belarus (2024). Afghanistan was an observer from 2012 until the 2021 collapse of the Afghan Republic government and the Taliban’s return to power; in 2025 it reemerged as an SCO partner, after the organization merged its observer and dialogue partner statuses.

At the meeting, Shoigu took the opportunity to warn against the potential return of any third-country military infrastructure to Afghanistan or neighboring countries.

“Our fundamental approach is that the United States and its allies must acknowledge full responsibility for their 20-year presence in Afghanistan and shoulder the primary burden of its post-conflict reconstruction,” Shoigu said. “We consider the return of third-country military infrastructure to Afghanistan or the deployment of new military facilities in neighboring states unacceptable.”

Media reports on Shoigu’s remarks do not speculate as to what shouldering “the primary burden of its post-conflict reconstruction” means in practical terms, or how such a task could even be completed without military infrastructure of any kind.

It’s also likely that when Shoigu referred to the “deployment of new military facilities in neighboring states” he’s not talking about the expanding Chinese-funded security infrastructure in countries like Tajikistan, where Beijing’s workers and businesses have come under increasing risk. 

Moscow officially recognized the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan – the........

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