Europeans vow unity on Taliban
G-7 nations to confer soon
LONDON — European leaders said Monday they will press for a unified international approach to dealing with a Taliban government in Afghanistan, as they looked on with dismay at the rapid collapse of two decades of a U.S.-led Western campaign in the country.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson spoke Monday to French President Emmanuel Macron, stressing the need for a common stand on recognizing any future Afghan government and to prevent a humanitarian and refugee crisis.
The leaders agreed to cooperate at the U.N. Security Council. Johnson also said he will host a virtual meeting of the Group of Seven leaders on Afghanistan in the next few days.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman said the question of whether there can be a dialogue with the Taliban needs to be discussed internationally.
“We do not have any illusions about the Taliban and the essence of their movement,” said Steffen Seibert, the spokesman.
Macron said Monday that the fight against “Islamist terrorism in all its forms” would not end.
He stressed that the U.N. Security Council is the forum for a coordinated response, and added, “We will do everything so that Russia, the United States and Europe can cooperate efficiently because our interests are the same.”
In the past few days, U.S., British and other Western governments have scrambled to evacuate their embassies, their citizens and Afghans who have helped with their military mission as the Taliban seized power.
European leaders’ hands are tied in many ways: They have little leverage over the Taliban, and they are deeply reluctant to publicly criticize the withdrawal decision by the United States or comment on their own role in the failed intervention.
NATO countries were left with little choice but to pull out the roughly 7,000 non-American forces in Afghanistan after President Joe Biden announced in April that he was ending U.S. involvement 20 years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Britain — which for much for the war contributed the second-largest number of troops to the mission — “was especially upset that the Biden administration didn’t consult it more fully about the decision to withdraw this summer,” said Malcolm Chalmers, deputy director-general of London’s Royal United Services Institute.
“That is water under the bridge, but the fact that there wasn’t a coordinated alliance approach to the withdrawal makes it even more important now to coordinate a Western response — starting with the question of recognition” of a Taliban government, he said.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said last week that the Taliban “need to understand that they will not be recognized by the international community if they take the country by force.” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has also warned that the militant group would face “isolation” and “lack of international support.”
Borrell is expected to chair an emergency meeting today of EU foreign ministers to discuss Afghanistan, while NATO envoys will also hold talks.
Meanwhile, Russia’s envoy on Afghanistan said that Moscow will decide whether to recognize the new Taliban government based on its conduct.
Asked Monday whether France and the U.S. were responsible for the collapse of the armed forces and the unfolding humanitarian crisis, Defense Minister Florence Parly said “France hasn’t been in Afghanistan since 2014. There’s no parallel to make with the U.S. involvement.”
Italian far-right leader Giorgia Meloni was much more direct, saying: “Let’s give a welcome back to the cynical Obama-Clinton-Biden doctrine: ‘If you can’t win, create chaos.’”