Western Countries Have Not Helped Afghanistan Economically - Nebenzia

UNITED NATIONS, (Sputnik) - The western states have not helped Afghanistan economically as Russia did during the Soviet times, the Russian Ambassador to the UN Vasily Nebenzia told the UN Security Council.

"All these years we've been hearing constantly about the Western colleagues' efforts to strengthen the fighting capacity of the Afghan national security forces, their effective training and control over the security situation. Against this backdrop, the socioeconomic situation in the country has remained dire," Nebenzia said on Monday.

The ambassador reminded that, in the Soviet period, more than 140 enterprises were set up in the country including industrial ones.

Washington spent more than $140 billion trying to rebuild Afghanistan during the occupation for most of the past two decades, but the process was marred by corruption and waste, according to scores of US special inspector general audits.

This week marks the one-year anniversary of the US exit from Afghanistan. On August 31, 2021, the Pentagon confirmed that every single American troop had left the war-torn South Asian country, the closing chapter on a 20-year war that culminated with the Taliban re-seizing power after being topped in the US-led invasion in October of 2001 in the wake of 9/11.