Afghanistan’s Minister of National Defense, Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob Mujahid, returned to Kabul from Moscow with new commitments, and it may be for this reason that he considers the prevention of future Pakistani airstrikes on Afghanistan inevitable.
He believes Pakistan is concerned about preventing future attacks on Afghanistan following the security cooperation agreement between Kabul and Moscow. According to him, this is why Pakistan’s foreign minister recently shared concerns about Afghanistan with U.S. officials.
Mujahid stated: “Pakistan’s complaint may stem from this concern. As you saw, a few months ago they could confidently carry out bombardments on any part of Afghanistan. We are working to ensure that in the near future Pakistan will no longer have the courage to do this.”
The security cooperation agreement between Moscow and Kabul was signed during Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob Mujahid’s visit to Russia. Under the agreement, Russian-made aircraft and other military equipment currently in Afghanistan will be repaired and restored.
The Defense Minister described the agreement as an achievement in the military field and said there is no reason for concern about it.
He said: “This is a military and technical agreement that experts in this field understand well. It is neither a defense pact nor a security treaty that should cause concern for anyone. It will serve only Afghanistan’s interests. As you know, Afghanistan possesses a large amount of Russian military equipment, including helicopters, aircraft, weapons, and other systems in various sectors. These require repair, modernization, monitoring, and maintenance.”
Mullah Yaqoob said the developments resulting from the agreement with Russia would contribute to regional security. He also added that Afghanistan is prepared to sign similar agreements with any country interested in helping repair U.S.-made military equipment remaining in the country.
He added: “Some countries are unnecessarily concerned. Our policy is that Afghanistan poses no threat to any country in the world. Rather, these military developments will help strengthen security cooperation in the region. We also have American-made aircraft, Brazilian-made aircraft, and equipment from many other countries. It is possible that we may need similar agreements with those countries if they are willing to cooperate with us. We see no problem with that.”
The Defense Minister traveled to Russia one day before Eid al-Adha at Moscow’s invitation to participate in the International Security Conference and returned on Saturday.
Representatives from organizations and institutions of nearly 100 countries, including Afghanistan, attended the conference to discuss regional and global security issues.
