Putin Rejected Function for U.S. Forces Around Afghanistan at Summit With Biden

Russian President Vladimir Putin, in the course of a June 16 summit conference with President Biden, objected to any position for American forces in Central Asian nations around the world, senior U.S. and Russian officials mentioned, undercutting the U.S. military’s efforts to act in opposition to new terrorist dangers following its Afghanistan withdrawal.

The beforehand unreported trade involving the U.S. and Russian leaders has intricate the U.S. military’s choices for basing drones and other counterterrorism forces in international locations bordering landlocked Afghanistan. That problem has deepened with the collapse over the weekend of the Afghan governing administration and armed forces.

The trade also signifies that Moscow is much more identified to try out to keep Central Asia as a sphere of impact than to develop cooperation with a new American president about the turmoil in Afghanistan, former and existing U.S. officials mentioned.

“The Russians have no desire in having the U.S. again in there,” explained Paul Goble, a former Condition Division pro on Eurasia.

The U.S. prerequisite for what the Pentagon calls an “over-the-horizon” counterterrorism capacity in Afghanistan has developed significantly in latest days with the Taliban takeover.