IIt is not a question of recognizing the Taliban regime in power, but simply of ensuring support for the transport of humanitarian aid. This is how the European Union explained, Thursday, January 20, the re-establishment of “a minimal presence” of its personnel in Kabul, Afghanistan. While the country is ravaged by war and was reconquered last August by the Taliban, the question of the delivery of humanitarian aid within the country remains a major one. In a statement, the spokesman for the head of EU diplomacy, Josep Borrell, wrote clearly: “Our minimal presence in Kabul should in no way be considered as recognition” of the regime in power.
“This has been clearly notified to the authorities” of the Taliban regime, adds Peter Stano. A little earlier, the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs had mentioned, through the voice of a spokesperson speaking on Twitter, the reopening of “an embassy” of the EU, with “a permanent presence in Kabul” for the first time in five months. A European diplomat, joined by Agence France-Presse in the Afghan capital, had qualified by speaking of a diplomatic presence having taken the name of delegation of the European Union, installed since the beginning of the week.
No country has recognized the Taliban government
According to Peter Stano, “the EU has begun to re-establish a minimum presence of international staff in its delegation”. The objective, he specifies, is to “facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid and monitor the humanitarian situation”. No country has yet recognized the Taliban government. The international community is waiting to see how these Islamist fundamentalists intend to govern Afghanistan after having largely trampled on human rights during their first stint in power, between 1996 and 2001.
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While the Taliban claim to have modernized, women remain largely excluded from public employment and secondary schools for girls remain mostly closed. Several countries, including Pakistan, Russia, China, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, kept their embassies open in Kabul after the Taliban victory in mid-August, without recognizing their government.
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Western diplomats began to evacuate their personnel in the first half of 2021, when American troops began their operations to withdraw definitively from Afghanistan. A withdrawal that ended at the end of August with the chaotic evacuation of 120,000 people after the country’s lightning conquest by the Taliban.