Recent reports indicate that the EU is planning to reopen its diplomatic mission in Afghanistan within one month to deepen its limited engagement with the Taliban.
On this issue, IRNA has reached Heinz Gärtner, a lecturer at University of Vienna and a member of Austrian International Institute for Peace.
He told IRNA in an interview on Tuesday that many EU states were members of NATO and therefore responsible for consequences of the war in Afghanistan.
Underlining that over 20 years of military intervention in Afghanistan didn’t bear a favorable outcome, the academician said that the EU was too late in realizing that it had a diplomatic and economic duty in Afghanistan in addition to the military mission.
Gärtner said that Afghanistan has always been among the 10 poorest countries during the last decade, adding that the World Food Programme has announced that 50 percent of Afghan people would face severe hunger in the coming winter.
The political science professor noted that the EU’s one-billion-dollar financial aid should be transferred via international and non-profit organizations as soon as possible and this required engagement with the Taliban.
Engagement with the Taliban should be conditional and should include observing human rights regarding women, children, and ethnic minorities, Gärtner said, adding that it was the reason why the EU announced that reopening of diplomatic mission didn’t suggest recognition of the Taliban.
Gärtner suggested that the EU should cooperate with Afghanistan neighbor countries to prevent instability in the region and this would include, according to the academic, dialogue with Iran, Russia, Pakistan, Turkey, and China, as well as Central Asian states.
The planned return of the EU comes as global powers attempt to work out how to deal with the Afghanistan’s new leaders. Brussels has said that it seeks a calibrated approach to the Taliban, pursuing engagement with the administration but stopping short of recognition.
The bloc believes it needs a role in a Taliban-led Afghanistan in order to lobby for the protection of human rights, to hold the Taliban to their pledge to stop the country becoming an exporter of terrorism again, and to help prevent a humanitarian crisis.