Russia, Afghanistan united on need to combat militants

Russia calls for normalising the situation in Afghanistan and the two states are united concerning the need to combat terrorism, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with his Afghan colleague Ashraf Ghani on Friday.

"We’ve had different periods in the history of our relations, and over the past decade relations between Afghanistan and Russia have been developing positively, without doubt," the president said. "We are actively coordinating our work at the international level, we have common understanding of the need to fight terrorism," he said.

Putin said that Russia calls for full normalisation in Afghanistan and "for the creation of conditions for progressive development."

The Russian leader said the two countries have a bilateral intergovernmental commission that is working. According to him, last year’s bilateral turnover increased, "however, it has declined considerably at the beginning of this summer." Putin said that the two states now have an opportunity to boost it and outline further cooperation steps.