Taliban defy West at U.N. talks while China, Russia eye closer ties

NEW DELHI — As the Taliban continue to bump heads with the West over the treatment of women and girls in Afghanistan, China and Russia are softening their stance against the regime.

For the first time, a Taliban delegation attended a United Nations-sponsored gathering on the Afghan crisis. Others at the two-day meeting held through Monday in Doha, Qatar, included Rosemary DiCarlo, the U.N. undersecretary-general for political affairs, as well as envoys from the U.S., Europe and Japan.

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid at the meeting reportedly urged the international community to lift sanctions, including those cutting Afghan banks off from the international finance system, and to unfreeze Afghan assets overseas.

The Taliban took control of Afghanistan after U.S. troops withdrew from the country in August 2021, through no nation has recognized the group as Afghanistan’s official government so far. The U.S. has frozen $7 billion of Afghan central bank assets.

Taliban restrictions on women and girls are a key flash point. The regime has barred girls from secondary education and heavily limits women’s ability to work. All women’s beauty salons in Afghanistan have been shut down.

The international community is urging the Taliban to address concerns over women’s rights, but they have repeatedly countered that women’s status as “free and dignified human beings” has been restored under the Taliban’s interpretation of Islamic law. The rift has hampered humanitarian efforts against mass hunger in Afghanistan.

Mujahid at the latest meeting dismissed Western concerns over women’s rights, calling the Taliban’s restrictions an “internal matter.”

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid speaks with Russian presidential envoy to Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov during a meeting in Doha, Qatar, on June 30. (Taliban Spokesman Office via AP)

Many farmers in Afghanistan also cultivate poppy, which is turned into opium and funds the Taliban’s activities. Future meetings are expected to explore alternative crops.

Meanwhile, recent moves by China and Russia indicate that they may be open to officially recognizing the Taliban. China in December accepted the Taliban regime’s ambassador to Beijing, becoming the first country to do so.

Afghanistan is believed to sit on $1 trillion of mineral reserves, including gold and industrially important metals like copper and lithium, both used in electric vehicles. China is likely seeking an advantage in resource development in Afghanistan and to incorporate the country into the Belt and Road infrastructure-building initiative.

Russia is exploring greater cooperation with the Taliban to fight the growing threat posed by the Islamic State militant group at home. Russian President Vladimir Putin has signaled an openness to recognizing the Taliban, and some see him potentially providing the regime with funds and weapons.

Such developments have alarmed India, which had close ties with the Afghan government before the Taliban’s return to power, and is anxious about the security environment in Southwest Asia.

“The Taliban is in place to benefit from the big power competition struggle between the U.S. and the West with China and Russia,” said Kabir Taneja, fellow with the strategic studies program at Indian think tank Observer Research Foundation.

“Ironically, it is perhaps more up to the Taliban’s diplomacy acumen on how it manages this rather than how external powers view the Taliban and its interim political system,” he said. “This is seen, for example, by the issue of girls’ education in Afghanistan being completely side-tracked now as realpolitik interests take center stage.”

source : asia.nikkei