On February 18-19 this year, an international meeting on Afghanistan was held in Doha under the auspices of the United Nations, which was chaired by Secretary–General A. Guterres. Representatives of 25 states and regional organizations also arrived in the capital of Qatar, including with four Afghan civil society activists. However, the conference failed to achieve concrete results for several reasons.
Firstly, due to the absence of representatives of the current government of the Islamic Emirate at the conference, it is impractical to expect positive changes, since the Taliban Movement, which is not a recognized state and at the same time has great political power in Afghanistan. The reason for the refusal to participate was the rejection of his demand to be the "only official representative of Afghanistan" at the conference.
Thus, the world community does not associate Afghanistan only with the Taliban, it advocates the creation of an inclusive government, therefore it involves civil society activists and the opposition of the current government in the conference. This is confirmed by the statement of the US State Department on the non-participation of the Taliban at the meeting of special representatives in Doha, that in the future Afghanistan will not belong only to the Taliban.
Secondly, the international community is limited only to issuing ultimatums against Afghanistan on issues of respect for human rights, the creation of an inclusive government, ensuring equal freedoms for women, and preventing the country from becoming a "hotbed" of terrorism. These requirements are not supported with strategic measures for their implementation, while remaining in fact meaningless statements to the "problematic" Afghanistan, which is building public life according to Sharia law.
Thirdly, once again, the international conference does not find an effective approach to eliminate the problems of Afghanistan, postponing them for subsequent rounds of meetings. Thus, the proof of this is the statement of the UN Secretary General during the February conference in Doha - "After a series of consultations, I will be ready to convene a new meeting." Such tendency is likely to lead to the hopelessness of this negotiating platform for the Taliban, which does not take into account their interests.
The Doha meeting also sent a preemptive signal to the Tliban Movement that non-participation in this meeting would lead to their further isolation and official non-recognition of the current government. In this regard, Afghanistan should actively participate in such conferences with the international community, which is the main financial donor of humanitarian assistance critically needed in the current economic situation and humanitarian crisis in the country.
In conclusion, taking into account the fact that the Taliban is one of the main influential centers of power in Afghanistan, the world community is considering options for compromise interaction with the Taliban while maintaining a critical position regarding individual decisions of the movement on human rights and inclusiveness of public administration. At the same time, the Taliban demonstrate a restrained attitude towards the demands of international partners and to some extent use their "tough stance" on these issues as a tool to influence the acceleration of the procedure for formal recognition of their government.
This policy brief was prepared by Salomov Bakhtiyorjon him under the supervision of Hamza Boltaev.
Salomov BakhtiyorjonGraduate of the University of World Economy and Diplomacy
Freelance employee (intern) Institute
Institute for Advanced International Studies under UWED
Contacts: salomovbakhtiyorjon@gmail.com
