Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Afghanistan remains one of the most serious security challenges in the region.

Speaking at the sixth Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) in Astana in Kazakhstan on Thursday, he said despite two decades of US and NATO presence, Afghanistan has been unable to address terrorist threats.

He mentioned the attack on the Russian Embassy in Kabul on September 5 and said that such attacks in Afghanistan confirm that terrorism remains a major challenge in country.

Addressing the participants, Putin noted that to normalize the situation in Afghanistan, joint support to improve the economic situation of the country is needed.

“We want reparation for the losses caused to Afghans during the years of occupation and the release of illegally frozen reserves of Afghanistan,” he said.

CICA is an organization that has 27 member countries and eight other countries and five organizations as observer members.

Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Egypt, India, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Palestine, Qatar, South Korea, Russia, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam are permanent members of CICA.

However, Afghanistan’s representative was not present at this summit.

Meanwhile, the spokeswoman of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Vladimirovna Zakharova, also called for the release of the frozen funds and said Washington was fully responsible for the crisis in Afghanistan.

The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) does not consider the territory of Afghanistan to be a threat to any country, and insists that regional interaction and cooperation with the Islamic Emirate should be increased in order to alleviate the concerns of the countries in the region.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also addressed delegates and said ensuring peace and stability in Afghanistan was critical in preventing migration and stemming terrorism.

“We should not leave Afghanistan to its fate. We, as the international community, should continue to support it with humanitarian aid,” Erdogan said.