Imangali Tasmagambetov, the Secretary General of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), has said the plan to strengthen the border between Tajikistan and Afghanistan will be approved later this month.

In an interview with STV Belarus, Tasmagambetov said: "The Collective Security Treaty Organization will approve the plan to strengthen the border between Tajikistan and Afghanistan on November 28 at a meeting in Astana."

He stated that the presence of militant groups in Afghanistan was a serious problem and that the approval of the plan to strengthen Tajikistan's border with Afghanistan will allow member countries of the Collective Security Treaty Organization to jointly guarantee the security of Central Asian countries.

The CSTO has on a number of occasions expressed concern about the security situation in Afghanistan.

The Islamic Emirate however, has repeatedly rejected claims of militant groups in Afghanistan and has said that the IEA will not allow any group to plan or carry out attacks from Afghanistan soil.

Tasmagambetov also discussed other challenges the organization faces.

“The CSTO is not an aggressive bloc. The task of the Collective Security Treaty Organization is to protect the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of the member states that are part of our organization.

“If we talk directly about the challenges and threats, these are primarily transnational terrorism, religious extremism, drug trafficking, illegal arms trafficking and illegal migration. We are working very seriously in all these areas,” he said.

Russia’s Special Representative for Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov said in a meeting with Acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi in Kabul that a high-level Russian delegation will visit Kabul in the near future to discuss the expansion of bilateral cooperation with the Islamic Emirate.

Kabulov and Muttaqi discussed bilateral relations between Afghanistan and Russia, especially economic cooperation, investment and transit, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Muttaqi described the relations between the Islamic Emirate and Russia as important, stressing that the ties should be expanded to include economic and trade cooperation.

He said visits to Kabul by high-level officials was important, adding that during the past year, many officials of the Islamic Emirate have been invited to Russia to attend international meetings.

Meanwhile, the Russian diplomat said that his country wants to expand its relations with Afghanistan in the economic and trade sectors.

This comes on the heels of Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko’s comments that the completion of legal procedures to remove the Islamic Emirate from Moscow’s terrorist list will provide positive impetus to Russian-Afghan relations.

In an interview with Russia’s TASS news agency, published early Sunday, Rudenko said “removing the terrorist organization’s status from the Taliban Movement (Islamic Emirate) will attribute a positive impetus to Russian-Afghan interaction in various spheres, in the economy in the first instance."

"As regards the issue of the official recognition of current Afghan authorities, it is early to talk about it thus far. Let’s act gradually, step by step, but we do not intend to artificially impede the processes," Rudenko noted.

Russia has been slowly building ties with the Islamic Emirate since it regained power in Afghanistan in August 2021 but the IEA is still officially outlawed in Russia.

In response to Russia’s comments last month, the IEA’s acting foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said the Islamic Emirate “appreciates the positive remarks by the high-ranking officials of the Russian Federation in this regard and hope to see more effective steps soon."

Ali Reza Begdeli, Iran's former deputy foreign minister for consular affairs, has been appointed as the country's new ambassador to Kabul, Mehr news agency reported on Sunday.

The outlet added that the post of the Iranian presidential special representative in Afghanistan has been removed and, as before, the special representative for Afghanistan will act directly under the supervision of the foreign minister.

It is worth mentioning that Hassan Kazemi Qomi previously served as Iran's ambassador and presidential special representative in Afghanistan.