DUSHANBE, December 24, 2015, Asia-Plus – Moscow and Dushanbe now face new risks because of Daesh activity in Afghanistan, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said yesterday in Moscow during a meeting with his Tajik counterpart Sherali Mirzo, using the term widely used for the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group.

Daesh is an Arabic acronym of al-Dawla al-Islamiya fil Iraq wa al-Sham, which translates to Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

Interfax news agency quoted Shoigu as saying, “We have to discuss a number of very important issues related to the deterioration of situation in the region, first of all on the Afghan direction.”

Unfortunately, the situation in the region is not changing for the better, Russian minister was quoted as saying.

According to him, IS formations have appeared in Afghanistan and Russia and Tajikistan, as allies in the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), now face additional risks.

Shoigu reportedly stressed that the Russian Ministry Defense “is fulfilling all plans on modernizing the armed forces of Tajikistan.”

He expressed confidence that all those measures would have positive outcomes for stability in the region.

For his part, Sherali Mirzo noted that the plan of bilateral military cooperation between Tajikistan and Russia is very saturated and said that Tajikistan supports Russia’s anti-terror operation in Syria, Tass news agency said.