Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's answers to questions from the Xinhua News Agency, Tunxi, March 31, 2022

Question: What are the main results of the meeting of the foreign ministers of Afghanistan's neighboring countries?

Sergey Lavrov: The main results are contained in the Final Statement of the Tunxi Initiative, which reflects the common views of all the participants of the meeting. The main thrust is to help the Afghan people who are suffering from the legacy of almost twenty years of presence of NATO forces. They left the country in a very bad condition.

The task of the international community is to help Afghanistan, first of all, to resolve humanitarian problems, and then to create conditions for revival of the economy and social sphere. The main message for the international community is that it should become much more active. The way forward for the entire world regarding Afghanistan problems is being formulated by the neighbors of this country. This meeting, hosted by China, was extremely important.

Question: What are the causes of the current crisis in Ukraine?

Sergey Lavrov: The main cause of the Ukrainian crisis is the policy which NATO headed by the United States conducted for several decades after the disappearance of the USSR. They continued to move the military infrastructure further to the east, «pumped» Ukraine with weapons, created military infrastructure there. This threatened Russia's security and was a gross violation of the decisions taken in the OSCE and in the context of Russia-NATO relations not to increase their own security at the expense of the security of others.