11 Nov 2021 10:00 30 years ago

Mere visit of Mujahidin to Moscow speaks volumes – Foreign Ministry official

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MOSCOW. Nov 11 (Interfax) – Achieving a political settlement in Afghanistan and the return of Soviet prisoners of war are the main and interconnected tasks that the Foreign Ministry of the USSR faces at negotiations with a delegation of Afghan Mujahidin in Moscow, a senior official of the Soviet Foreign Ministry said.

Speaking with an Interfax correspondent, he said that in his opinion it is not realistic to expect much from the first actual full-scale contacts with Mujahidin in Moscow. At the same time, it also would be wrong to say that the negotiation will bring no result, he said. "The mere visit of Mujahidin to Moscow speaks volumes," he said.

The negations in Moscow will last "about three days," he said.

A meeting of Foreign Ministers of the USSR and Russia, Boris Pankin and Andrei Kozyrev respectively, with the Mujahidin delegation is due to take place tomorrow, November 12. Representatives of Soviet Central Asian republics bordering Afghanistan are likely to attend the meeting.