The EU does not have or is not going to have a short-term, an office, delegation or embassy in the Afghanistan of the Taliban. He tried, and for a few days he came to have a displaced team, but the lack of local government cooperation, the enormous security risks and the lack of interlocutors has made the European institutions and executives unite. Sleep, shortly after the fall, to establish a direct communication thread has already vanished, but at the same time continental and institutional leaders assume that humanitarian aid will be essential to avoid the collapse of the economy.
The contacts with Kabul are going to be in and through Qatar. It is not that any type of approach or negotiation has to be in the Gulf Emirate, but all the exchanges are done today indirectly, through the mediators, those who best know the Taliban after years doing that Function in bread negotiations and exchanges with Americans. They control times, language and ambition. It is possible that something changes over time, but there are no elements to think that it will be fast.
"Doha will be the contact platform with the Taliban, they have a perfect communication," explains from the ground the high representative for foreign policy, Josep Borrell. "It's a speech of: they are in power, they have to talk to them, they do not pose impossible things, but little by little they will evolve positively. However the first news they arrive do not reflect that positive evolution," explains Spanish in a meeting A distance with a group of journalists.
The EU knows that there is no uniform taliban government. There are different groups, factions, sometimes coordinated and often faced with each other, and that makes it so complicated to achieve minimum security conditions to send diplomatic personnel. There are ideologues, military chiefs, religious bosses, the 'Kandahar' group, the toughest; And there is also the Doha Group, the diplomats, the most moderate, those who have been talking years and even living abroad and are more receptive to modernity, to the presence of women at the table, to try to find an understanding because they know That the country is ruined, that its men and public officials take months without charging salaries or eating under conditions, and that humanitarian aid from Europe is essential. They are not the most relevant, they are seen as suspected by their enemies, but they are the best trick for common minimums.
"Now we have no presence, but the people who have been and who come back from Afghanistan, as the president of the Red Cross or the World Health Organization say that women continue to work, who continue to go to the hospital, who walk Solo on the street. They tell us that we can not let the country collapse, and also coincide in the discourse that Taliban can evolve over time. The fundamental problem that arises is now how it can be avoided that the economy of the Country Collapse, is a country without reserves, without liquidity, without internal resources, the dependence on Afghanistan of international aid is total, "Borrell insists. "Humanitarian aid has begun to flow, and much better than in Ethiopia, where half of the medical material has been required," clarifies the socialist political veteran. But the only way to keep afloat or a completely inefficient ship will be the injection of hundreds of millions of euros.
From several European capitals there was a very real fear, in summer, that the collapse of Afghanistan generated a migratory crisis and that the pressure on community borders, as in 2015 or 2016, would burst the Schengen space. It has not happened. "There are no mass migrations, it depends on what is understood by massive, true, but we are not seeing exoduses," says Borrell. That has calmed down the situation, also with the neighbors, and the EU studies how to inject liquidity and achieve in exchange presence on the ground, facilities to evacuate the collaborators who are still in the country and pressing for some basic rights to be maintained , something that now looks like a chimera.
Just a month ago, when Brussels aspired to have a common embassy in Kabul, he raised a series of five conditions to be able to have an "operational relationship", based on the basis that there will be no official recognition. The pragmatic line, which Borrell Amandera, is that reality can not be denied. The Taliban control the country and you have to talk to them. The five conditions for an understanding and the flow of money is that they should commit themselves with not exporting terrorism, respecting human rights, freedom of press and the rule of law. They should establish an inclusive government, in political terms and with all factions and tribes, non-targeting. And` also allow the arrival and delivery of humanitarian aid and, above all, to allow them to leave those who want to leave the country. "The Benchmark, the requirements, do not give many reasons to be optimistic," admits the High Representative. "At least there has been a certain degree of including Non-Taliban" in the second batch of official appointments, he stands out.
Date Of Update: 08 October 2021, 19:12
