Afghanistan under Taliban rule has once again become a haven for terrorism, according to a growing number of global and regional powers.Recent statements from Russia, China, Iran, the United Nations (UN), the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), and Central Asian states confirm that terrorist groups such as ISIS, al-Qaeda, and the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) are operating freely from Afghan soil.
These warnings reflect a serious global concern: the Taliban regime has failed to prevent Afghanistan from turning into a hub for transnational terrorist organizations.
Joint Quadrilateral Statement: Russia, China, Iran – September 2025
In September 2025, a Joint Quadrilateral Statement by Russia, China, and Iran declared that ISIS, al-Qaeda, the Pakistani Taliban, and Jaish al-Adl continue to use Afghanistan as a base of operations.
The statement, issued during the UN General Assembly session, called for urgent regional cooperation to counter the spread of terrorism, radicalism, and drug trafficking emanating from Afghanistan.
Moscow Format Consultations: Deepening Regional Concerns
During the Moscow Format Talks in October 2025, regional states including Russia and Central Asian nations expressed alarm over the presence of ISIS-Khorasan, al-Qaeda, and the TTP inside Afghanistan.
Participants urged the Taliban to ensure Afghan soil is not used to threaten neighboring countries, warning that the instability could easily spill across borders and export radicalism into Central Asia.
SCO and Chinese Warnings
At the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in China, member states once again pressed the Taliban to stop terrorist financing and training activities within Afghanistan.
The joint declaration noted that Afghanistan’s political isolation and weak governance have made it a breeding ground for militancy, directly endangering regional peace and major connectivity projects.
Lavrov’s Statement: “Thousands of Fighters Inside Afghanistan”
In August 2025, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated that “thousands of ISIS and other fighters are based inside Afghanistan.”
He warned that this situation represents a long-term threat to regional stability and underscores the Taliban’s failure to dismantle militant sanctuaries.
UN Report: ISIS-K Expanding Beyond Afghanistan
A United Nations report released in August 2025 described ISIS-Khorasan (ISIS-K) as the “greatest extraregional terrorist threat.”
The report confirmed that ISIS-K runs training camps inside Afghanistan and is expanding recruitment networks across Central Asia and Europe, planning attacks while avoiding direct confrontation with the Taliban.
CSTO: Northern Afghanistan Becoming a Hotbed
The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), in its October 2025 session, warned that extremist concentrations in northern Afghanistan have become a source of regional instability.
Tajikistan and Uzbekistan have since increased border security amid fears of cross-border militant infiltration.
Global Consensus
What was once seen as political rhetoric has now turned into a global consensus.
Major powers with competing interests — from the West to Russia, China, and Iran — now agree that Afghanistan under Taliban control is hosting transnational terrorist groups.
The Taliban’s promises to prevent the use of Afghan soil against others have largely gone unfulfilled.
The country’s ungoverned spaces and lack of accountability have created the same conditions that existed before 2001 — a time when Afghanistan served as a launchpad for global terrorism.
For the international community, the challenge is strategic, not just military:
How to contain a threat that is operating from within a state that remains unrecognized yet strategically central to South and Central Asia.
Until the Taliban demonstrate credible action against these groups, Afghanistan will remain — as the evidence now shows — a haven for terrorism in the heart of Asia.
Editor’s Note
This analysis connects with Pakistan’s recent Foreign Office statement following the Istanbul talks (November 2025), where Islamabad urged the Afghan Taliban to act decisively against groups like TTP and BLA operating from Afghan territory.
The growing regional consensus underscores a shared reality: without coordinated counter-terrorism efforts, the Afghan threat matrix may once again destabilize the broader South and Central Asian region.
