KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – A senior Taliban delegation has travelled to Russia to attend the 16th Kazan Forum, an international economic summit focused on cooperation between Russia and Islamic countries.
In a post on X, the Taliban said the delegation, led by Abdul Ghani Baradar, the group’s deputy prime minister for economic affairs, would also hold meetings with senior officials from several participating countries on the sidelines of the event.
The forum, which runs from May 13 to May 18 in Kazan, the capital of Russia’s Tatarstan Republic, aims to enhance economic ties between Russia and the Islamic world. This year’s agenda covers topics such as trade, Islamic finance, halal standards, and partnership-based financial models.
More than 100 countries and organizations, including the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, are participating in the event, according to Russian state media.
This marks the second consecutive year that the Taliban have been invited to the summit. While Russia does not officially recognize the Taliban government, it has strengthened its ties with the group in recent years.
Russia recently removed the Taliban from its official list of terrorist organizations after more than 20 years. Russian envoy Zamir Kabulov said the decision “finally removed all obstacles to full cooperation between Russia and the Taliban.”
Despite these developments, Russia—like many countries around the world—remains concerned about the threat of terrorism in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, particularly from the ISIS-affiliated group known as the Islamic State Khorasan Province (IS-KP).
Last year, IS-KP claimed responsibility for a deadly attack in Russia that killed more than 130 people. The incident has heightened regional fears over security threats emanating from Afghanistan.
