The EU Foreign Ministers were due to discuss the EU’s future relations with the Taliban at their informal meeting in Kranj, Slovenia, on the evening of Thursday 2 September.
According to the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, the ministers were to coordinate on the conditions to be imposed on the Taliban in order to develop this relationship and on a possible EU presence there.
“We have to engage with the new government, but under conditions”, Mr Borrell said, adding that relations and cooperation would depend on the shape of the new government and the path it took.
“Engaging with the new government does not mean recognition”, he also warned, pointing out that a distinction must be made between political recognition and factual recognition, i.e. the reality on the ground. The High Representative explained that discussions were needed with the Taliban on humanitarian aid, but also on the evacuation of European citizens and Afghans who wanted to leave the country but were unable to do so before 31 August.
Conversely, “development aid will not start again until we know who is running Afghanistan and how”, he warned.
The day before, during a debate in the European Parliament (see other news), the Director General for Asia and the Pacific of the European External Action Service, Gunnar Wiegand, explained that the EU would not rush to recognise the Taliban.
“We will not rush to recognise this new formation or to establish official relations”, he told MEPs. However, “there is no doubt among member states and in the G7 context: we must engage with the Taliban, we must communicate with them, we must influence them, we must use the levers we have”, he explained.
According to Mr Wiegand, the conditions for establishing official relations are allowing free passage for Afghans who wish to leave the country, refraining from retaliating against those affiliated with foreign powers or the former government, preventing Afghanistan from becoming a haven for terrorists, and forming an inclusive and representative transitional government.
Although the EU delegation to Afghanistan will operate from Brussels, the EEAS representative felt that some form of representation in Kabul will be necessary, when the situation allows, to ensure the continuation of humanitarian aid. “We must not allow only the less like-minded countries to be the only ones in Afghanistan”, he said. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)