Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has announced that the Taliban has been removed from the list of terrorist groups.
This decision of the Central Asian country could influence Vladimir Putin’s view on removing the Taliban from the list of terrorist groups in Russia.
TASS, the Russian state news agency, reported that Tokayev said that Kazakhstan has removed the Taliban from the terrorist list to develop economic cooperation with Afghanistan.
During a meeting of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) countries, the Kazakh president said that Kazakhstan, considering the importance of expanding trade and economic cooperation with Afghanistan and understanding that the Taliban government will be in power for the “long-term,” has removed this group from the list of terrorist organizations.
According to the President of Kazakhstan, one of the strategic tasks at the current stage is the active participation of Afghanistan in inter-regional relations.
Previously, senior Russian officials had also spoken about the possibility of removing the Taliban from the list of terrorist organizations in their country.
Putin, on May 28, considered establishing relations with the Taliban a necessity.
He said that the Taliban controls Afghanistan and its territory.
During a meeting with reporters in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, he said, “We take into account the opinions of each of our partners and friends and will be coordinated on this issue.”
