The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation's decision to grant Afghanistan observer status will help joint efforts by Moscow and Kabul to fight terrorism and drug trafficking, Russia's foreign minister said on Thursday.
The two nations' efforts to "more closely cooperate on the anti-terrorism and anti-drug track" will be facilitated by the move, Sergei Lavrov told journalists after talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul.
Lavrov was in Kabul for an international conference to discuss the country's future as U.S.-led troops prepare to withdraw and hand over security to local forces in 2014.
Afghan drug production increased dramatically after the U.S.-led invasion toppled the Taliban in 2001, and Russia has been one of the most affected countries, with heroin consumption rising steeply.
Around 30,000 Russians die from heroin abuse every year, 90 percent of it coming from Afghanistan smuggled through other Central Asian countries, including Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.
