Updated · Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty · Aug 15
Taliban Hold Brussels Talks With 15 EU States as 5 Years of Rule Deepen Afghanistan Crisis
Updated
Updated · Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty · Aug 15
Taliban Hold Brussels Talks With 15 EU States as 5 Years of Rule Deepen Afghanistan Crisis
2 articles · Updated · Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty · Aug 15
Summary
A Taliban delegation met the European Commission and representatives from 15 EU member states in Brussels in June for unprecedented closed-door technical talks on migration, deportations of rejected Afghan asylum seekers and consular cooperation.
The outreach comes as five years of Taliban rule have left Afghanistan in economic crisis and humanitarian distress after foreign aid largely dried up over the regime’s restrictions on women and girls.
World Bank data show Afghanistan’s GDP fell from about $20 billion in 2020 to just above $14 billion in 2021; an April 2025 report said poverty, food insecurity and unemployment remain severe, with girls’ secondary enrollment at 3%.
Russia is the only country to formally recognize the Taliban, and no EU state appears ready to do so; critics called the Brussels visit a creeping normalization, while the Taliban cast it as a historic trust-building step.
Analysts say the movement has centralized power around Mullah Hebatullah, blocked any inclusive political process and faces signs of rising armed resistance, even as relative calm has replaced much of the earlier war.
Are European nations quietly normalizing ties with the Taliban to halt migration, secretly sacrificing the rights of Afghan women in the process?
With Russia officially recognizing the Taliban and signing military pacts, will Western isolation strategies ultimately hand Afghanistan to rival global powers?
How can a deeply fractured nation survive an 11 percent population explosion while its economy collapses and international aid completely dries up?