Democracy can't be forced on others, Russia tells US

The Russian foreign minister on Wednesday said the Afghan campaign should teach the US that democracy cannot be forced on others.

Speaking at a joint news conference after a meeting with his Austrian counterpart Alexander Schallenberg in the capital Vienna, Sergey Lavrov said the main conclusion the US should draw from the Afghan war is that "it is useless to teach others how to live."

“We have observed in Libya, Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan how the Americans wanted to force everyone to live as the Americans see fit. Everyone should deal with their own problems, there are enough of them in every country," he said.

"We should not interfere in someone else's business. We should not use force in a way that violates the UN Charter."

Schallenberg called the Afghan issue "the most serious topic on the international agenda."

He urged the international community to do everything possible to prevent Afghanistan from "becoming an incubator of international terrorism," and stop a new wave of migration from there.