EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell said that the EU should negotiate with representatives of the radical Taliban movement*.
“The Taliban are now becoming inevitable negotiators for us. We should ensure our presence in Kabul and try to avoid being crowded out by other powers”, Borrell said in an interview with the French weekly Le Journal du Dimanche.
He stressed that the situation in Afghanistan has become “a real failure for the West and a tragedy for the Afghans.” According to the EU representative, this will make “strong changes in the international balance of power, therefore all necessary conclusions should be drawn in order to avoid a repetition of this situation in other countries.”
“It is unacceptable just to close the page of Kabul, considering that the situation in this country does not concern us. This is not about recognizing the Taliban government or agreeing with their vision of the world and their actions that are based on this vision. We should make it clear to the Taliban that it is not in their interests to fence off from foreign powers, in particular European ones”, Borrell added.
* Terrorist organization, banned in the Russian Federation.