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US State Department building (archive image): "We are not able to attend this week," said a spokesman on Monday
Photo:
J. Scott Applewhite / ASSOCIATED PRESS
The US will not participate in Russia-organized talks on Afghanistan on Tuesday.
"We are unable to attend this week," said State Department spokesman Ned Price on Monday.
The USA wanted to take part in this "constructive" forum in the future.
For the current rejection, Price gave logistical reasons without going into detail.
Russia had announced Afghanistan talks with China, Pakistan and the USA in Moscow for Tuesday.
The Kremlin's Afghanistan representative, Samir Kabulov, said on Friday that the aim was to try "to work out a common position on the changing situation in Afghanistan."
Talks between Russian representatives and the radical Islamic Taliban are planned for Wednesday on how a humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan can be averted.
The Taliban had used the withdrawal of international troops from Afghanistan to regain power in the Hindu Kush in mid-August.
Russian President Vladimir Putin fears that the jihadist militia "Islamic State" will spread from Afghanistan into Central Asia.
In his view, this could destabilize the entire region.
Moscow had already held an international conference on the future of Afghanistan in March, with the participation of the USA, China and Pakistan among others.
ngo / AFP / Reuters