By Kurt Zindulka
https://www.breitbart.com/author/kzindulka/
The European Union is set to establish a diplomatic presence in Taliban-controlled Kabul amid increasing concerns over the influence of Communist China and Russia in Afghanistan, as well as a potential Afghan migrant crisis.
On Friday, the Foreign Affairs and Security Policy representative for the EU, Josep Borrell, said that the decision to forge a diplomatic presence in Afghanistan should not be understood as diplomatically recognising the Islamist Taliban as the government of the country, somehow.
Borrell claimed that engagement with the Taliban will be dependent on the Islamist group preventing Afghanistan once again becoming an exporter of terrorism abroad, respecting the rule of law, human rights, and a free press.
He also called on the Islamists to form an “inclusive” transitional government, to allow humanitarian aid workers to operate freely in the country, and to ensure the safety of foreign nationals attempting to flee the country.
“This requires engagement with the Taliban. We are going to see how we can do that in a coordinated manner, putting conditions and, according to the fulfilment of these conditions and according to the kind of government that the Taliban will form and how do they behave, we will be engaging successively with them,” Borrell said.
The Eurocrat said that the diplomatic presence will not come in the form of an embassy, for now, which he noted would amount to political recognition of the Taliban, but rather as a “humanitarian corridor” in order to help provide aid to the people of the country.
Borrell said that it should be seen as a “factual recognition”, explaining: “If you are in power and, certainly, they are in power, we have to recognise the reality.”
He went on to say that the European Union will have to adapt to the new political landscape in the region following President Joe Biden’s botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, saying that Brussels will need to determine how it “affects our relationship and our alliance with the United States” and how the EU will “manage the new regional landscape and the new role for Russia, China, Pakistan, Turkey and India.”
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2021/09/04/european-union-to-re-establish-a-diplomatic-presence-in-taliban-run-afghanistan/