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19Feb14

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Russia seeks to reinforce anti-drug structures in Afghanistan

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Russia seeks to reinforce anti-drug structures in Afghanistan, presidential special envoy for Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov told Itar-Tass on Wednesday.

"It is very important for us because the flow of Afghan drugs to Russia is considerable. That is why we'd like to reinforce these structures in Afghanistan," said Kabulov, who is also director of the Russian Foreign Ministry 2nd Asia Department.

In general, "Russia helps develop and strengthen the Armed Forces of Afghanistan". "We'd started cooperation after the first post-Taliban government was formed and after the defense ministers of both countries signed a protocol on cooperation," the Russian diplomat said.

In compliance with the protocol a great number of equipment, military vehicles and communications have been supplied to Afghanistan over two years. "In recent years, we supplied small arms to Afghanistan -- 20,000 Kalashnikov machine guns and 15,000 pieces of ammunition. We made these supplies in order to reinforce the Interior Ministry of Afghanistan and anti-drug structures, primarily," he said.

"Afghanistan seeks to continue cooperation. Afghanistan's Defense Ministry is sending requests for what they need. These are combat and transport aircraft, helicopters and weapons," Kabulov said, adding "The country would like to strengthen the army to make it self-contained."

"It's timely to predict anything. Russian President Vladimir Putin approved any kind of assistance to Afghanistan," Kabulov said.

[Source: Itar Tass, Moscow, 19Feb14]

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