Russia invites Afghanistan’s Taliban to St Petersburg forum, as relations with West worsen over Ukraine war
Some questions remain, Kabulov was quoted as saying, though he said that an invitation to attend the June 5-8 St Petersburg international economic forum had been extended to the Taliban.
Afghan leaders, he said, were traditionally interested in the purchase of oil products.
01:26
Taliban bans women from visiting popular national park in Afghanistan
The St Petersburg forum, which once hosted Western CEOs and investment bankers from London and New York, has changed significantly amid the Ukraine war, which has triggered the biggest crisis in Russia’s relations with the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
Western investors seeking a slice of Russia’s vast resource wealth have now been replaced by businesses from China, India, Africa and the Middle East.
The Taliban, which means “students” in the Pashto language, emerged in 1994 around the southern Afghan city of Kandahar. It was one of the factions fighting a civil war for control of the country following the withdrawal of the Soviet Union and subsequent collapse of the government.
It originally drew members from so-called “mujahideen” fighters who, with support from the United States, repelled Soviet forces in the 1980s.
In 2003, Russia formally labelled the Taliban a terrorist organisation, though it had periodic informal contacts with the movement.