MOSCOW, October 16. /TASS/. No country is safe from potential color revolutions orchestrated by the West in its pursuit of geopolitical expansion, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned, addressing a conference on security in Central Asia and Afghanistan hosted by the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).
NATO is seeking to extend its reach into Eurasia.
Lavrov also noted that Afghanistan would need a long time to recover from 20 years of inglorious occupation by the United States and NATO countries.
TASS has compiled the foreign minister’s key statements.
NATO tries to propagate its interests
No country is safe from potential color revolutions orchestrated by the West in its pursuit of geopolitical expansion: "Absolutely any country, including our partners in Central Asia, can fall victim to the West’s geopolitical expansion or color revolutions orchestrated by the West."
"Such attempts against quite a number of our neighbors have already been obstructed."
NATO is seeking to extend its reach into Eurasia: "NATO has no place in Eurasia. NATO is now trying to claim that the entire territory of Eurasia falls within its area of responsibility because it is a defensive alliance that protects the territories of its member states. However, threats to the territories of North Atlantic Alliance countries supposedly now originate from the Taiwan Strait, the South China Sea and elsewhere."
NATO is trying to extend reach beyond its bounds: "This is a major philosophical shift that demonstrates NATO’s intention to dictate its will far beyond its area of responsibility."
Situation in Afghanistan
Afghanistan will need a long time to recover from 20 years of inglorious occupation by the United States and NATO countries: "We are trying to be realistic and, in this regard, understand that it will take a long time to overcome the grim legacy left by the United States and other NATO countries after two decades of inglorious occupation of Afghanistan."
"We understand the difficulties facing the government in promoting socioeconomic development in the absence of national financial reserves, which in this case, too, were effectively stolen by our Western colleagues. In this regard, Russia will continue to provide the Afghan people with all the economic and humanitarian assistance it can."
Russia believes that the government formed by the Taliban movement "is a reality that needs to be accepted," and that more and more countries are growing accustomed to this idea: "At the political level, we focus our efforts on consolidating external support for the Kabul authorities and the areas of their activities that serve the interests of regional security. Russia fully shares the vision that Afghanistan should be an independent, united and peaceful country, free of war and drugs."
Radicals seek to use Afghanistan as a springboard for spreading threats to Central Asia and Russia: "We take note of the fact that, according to available data, terrorist and extremist groups maintain a significant presence in Afghanistan’s areas bordering Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, where they have training camps and strongholds. Members of these groups seek to infiltrate Central Asian countries, particularly disguised as refugees and even tourists."
Combating drug trafficking and arms smuggling
"Attempts continue to smuggle weapons and drugs from Afghanistan into Central Asia and onward to Russia."
Moscow and its partners in Central Asia are taking every possible measure to counter threats posed by arms and drug trafficking from Afghanistan: "We have to try harder and harder as time goes on, and we are working on that together with all Central Asian nations, while also engaging our colleagues in Kabul."
Kabul has reduced drug production by 90% since 2022: "We believe that Kabul’s efforts to counter illicit drug trafficking also deserve high praise. According to the relevant United Nations agency, opiate production has fallen by 90% since 2022. This is an impressive result.".