The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Sergei Lavrov says Russia does not want to see U.S. troops in Central Asia because it would make the region a target for attacks.
Kommersant says Lavrov remarked this while speaking to reporters in Budapest yesterday after holding talks with his Hungarian counterpart, Peter Szijjarto.
Russian top diplomat said Moscow did not want to see U.S. troops in Central Asia because the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) member nations (Russia and Central Asian member nations of the Organization, including Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan) had a common security space.
Allowing U.S. troops to have a presence in Central Asian nations would "immediately turn themselves into targets," Lavrov noted.
According to him, Washington's proposal to allow refugees from Afghanistan to resettle in the region would undermine stability.
Russian top diplomat further stressed that Russia was ready, along with China, the United States, and Pakistan, to take part in resolving the current crisis in Afghanistan, sparked earlier this month by the Taliban's takeover of Kabul and almost all of the rest of the country.
He added that the situation in Afghanistan would be the main issue in the agenda of the sessions of the CSTO and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) that would take place in Dushanbe next month.
