Europe urges unity on Taliban but is quiet on failed mission
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 to French President Emmanuel Macron Monday, stressing the need for a common stand, both on recognizing any future Afghan government and to prevent a humanitarian and refugee crisis.
Both leaders agreed to cooperate at the U.N. Security Council, and Johnson also said he will host a virtual meeting of the Group of Seven leaders on Afghanistan in the next few days. Johnson said on Sunday, “We don’t want anybody to bilaterally recognize the Taliban.”
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman echoed that sentiment Monday, saying 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.
The French leader said in a speech to the nation Monday night that the fight against “Islamist terrorism in all its forms” would not end.
“Afghanistan cannot again become the sanctuary for terrorism that it was,” Macron said.
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.”
Macron also raised fears of uncontrolled migration to Europe by Afghans, saying that France, Germany and other European countries would work to swiftly develop a “robust, coordinated and united response.”
As far as the crisis inside Afghanistan, 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, their powerful NATO ally — 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 nonAmerican forces in Afghanistan after President Joe Biden announced in April that he was ending the U.S. involvement in the war by September, 20 years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Malcolm Chalmers, deputy director-general of London’s Royal United Services Institute, said that Britain — which for much for the war contributed the secondlargest 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.”
“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.”