On May 27, Russia and Afghanistan signed a defense pact. This has come less than a year after Moscow formally recognized the Taliban regime as the government of Afghanistan. Details of what the agreement entails have not been disclosed. However, the pact marks an important shift in Moscow’s previously troubled relations with Afghanistan and could pave the way for deeper cooperation. The agreement has triggered speculation about its motivations and implications. Analysts have pointed to the timing; it comes amid the ongoing Pakistani military strikes on Afghanistan. Is Kabul seeking to boost its military capabilities to signal to Islamabad that it has strong friends? Others have argued that the agreement is about deploying Afghan fighters in the Russia-Ukraine war.
In an interview with The Diplomat’s South Asia editor, Sudha Ramachandran, Aleksei Zakharov, a fellow with the Strategic Studies Programme at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi, shared his insights into the growing Russia-Afghanistan relationship, reasons for the growing cooperation, the defense pact and its implications for Afghanistan and the region. While it is “natural” that Taliban leaders are projecting “the deal with Russia as a leverage or a deterrent against Pakistan,” the deal is not a mutual defense pact, he said. It is “unlikely to include any security assurances or mutual commitments to support each other in military conflicts.”
