US military officers stand near U.S. Air Force planes, which were used to evacuate people from Afghanistan, at Al Udeid airbase in Doha, Qatar, September 4, 2021. © REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed; (inset) © Sputnik/Mikhail Voskresensky
Despite the US spending months planning its withdrawal from Afghanistan, the events that unfolded looked more like an escape than a coordinated maneuver, Russian President Vladimir Putin told a forum of Eurasian leaders on Friday.
Putin was speaking at a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a group of eight countries, including China and India.
“The urgent task facing our organization is to pursue a single and coordinated policy based on the assessment of serious risks related to the mounting tensions in Afghanistan following the hasty withdrawal – or more like a downright escape – by US and NATO troops from the country,” Putin said.
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All of this regional talk is not going to change the unstable situation in Afghanistan right now. The U.S. provided approximately $20 billion in aid in each year to Afghanistan. This money will now need to be replaced, but no one is ready to make that type of commitment right now.