MOSCOW: Russia, China, Pakistan and other regional states called on the United States on Friday to engage with the Taliban and fund aid to Afghanistan, though they also urged the former insurgents to yield power to a more inclusive government.

The fate of Afghanistan dominated a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, formed 20 years ago as a talking shop for Russia, China and ex-Soviet central Asian states, but which has lately expanded into a bloc with wider regional ambitions. India and Pakistan joined in 2017, and Iran joined on Friday.

Putin says Russia will not deploy its armed forces in Afghanistan

Leaders of the group said it was the responsibility of the West in general and the United States in particular to help avert a humanitarian disaster in Afghanistan, where Western aid propped up the government swept away by the Taliban last month.