Russia has swung a surprise as it moved a step closer towards embracing the Taliban dispensation. The de jure recognition will be the first of its kind from the world community since the militia took over Kabul in August 2021. A high-powered Taliban delegation in Moscow got eyebrows raised as the hobnobbing is plausibly resulting in fragmenting the regional consensus of en bloc acknowledgment, given the militia agrees to a set of conditionalities. Those perquisites range from forming an inclusive government to respecting women rights and not allowing non-state actors to use the Afghan soil for terrorism. But this change of heart at the Kremlin is no less than a shock, as Moscow’s recognition will embolden Afghanistan and put it back in the league of anti-Americanism. The masterstroke by Russia has left the US and the regional states in a state of deep introspection.
Russia, perhaps, has taken a cue from China which was the first to accept a full-time ambassador appointed by the Taliban regime. That China and Russia are now on Afghanistan side has come as a shot in the arm and will surely lead to some big-ticket developmental projects in the landlocked war-weary country. At the same time it will add a new leaf of resentment as the Taliban believe that the regional states had taken it for a ride, and pushed it into oblivion. Taliban also openly lament that they are being cornered, and asking them to ‘do more’ in eradicating the terror nexus is much more than their capacity.
President Vladimir Putin’s utterance that Taliban are a ‘reality’ is realpolitik, and speaks high of his diplomatic muscle-flexing. Likewise, the Russian Ministry of Justice and Foreign Affairs recommendation to remove the Afghan Taliban from the list of terrorist organisations, slapped in 2003, will clear the path of formal diplomatic relations. This aspect should be deliberated threadbare by the US, West and regional states and a new policy reoriented to bring in the Taliban for greater positivity and anti-terror collaboration.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 31st, 2024.
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