NATO protects Kabul airport amid Western embassies stampede

NATO has decided to maintain its presence in Kabul despite the arrival of the Taliban in the capital of Afghanistan.

"We are helping to maintain operations at the Kabul airport so that Afghanistan remains connected to the world," an official Alliance source said this Sunday.

The same source adds that they will maintain their "diplomatic presence in Kabul."

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  The militia advances in Kabul after the departure of the Afghan president from the country

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The allies held an emergency meeting last Friday to analyze the situation and the secretary general of the organization, Jens Stoltenberg, indicated that NATO "maintains its support for the Afghan government and the security forces as much as possible."

The EU also spoke out on Thursday, with a statement from the High Representative for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, condemning the violation of human rights in areas controlled by the Taliban and calling on the insurgent group to "immediately resume" the dialogue to reach a permanent ceasefire.

Spoke with #UK PM @BorisJohnson and the Foreign Ministers of our Allies #Canada, #Denmark and #Netherlands on the situation in #Afghanistan.

#NATO is helping keep Kabul airport open to facilitate and coordinate evacuations.

- Jens Stoltenberg (@jensstoltenberg) August 15, 2021

But the Taliban offensive has advanced at breakneck speed and this Sunday it reached the capital and the president, Ashraf Ghani, hastily left the country.

Brussels is, for the moment, silent in the face of a Taliban victory that only a few days ago it considered unlikely.

Last Tuesday, a community source pointed out that "the Taliban are taking positions to become stronger in the face of a negotiation on the future of the country."

Five days later, the pro-Western Ghani government is a thing of the past and the Taliban say they want all power and there is nothing to negotiate.

The EU now faces the possibility of a migration crisis if Afghans fleeing the Taliban seek refuge on European soil.

The last NATO checkpoint on Afghan soil seems to put an end to an Alliance presence that began in 2003 and that has continued in different formats until the US announced its withdrawal after 20 years of occupation of the country.

At the beginning of this year, the mission had troops on the ground with 9,592 troops, of which 2,500 were from the United States and 4,000 from the EU allies participating in the mission.

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Since 2007, NATO has managed a fund of the international community that has mobilized almost 3,500 million dollars (2,900 million euros at current exchange rates) to train the Afghan army (including the literacy of many of its members) and equip it with equipment and armament. After initiating the western withdrawal, NATO accelerated the donation of material and on August 2 announced the delivery of equipment worth 72 million dollars (61 million euros), a supply that in a matter of days seems destined to end up in the hands of the Taliban.

The official NATO source insists that it supports "Afghan efforts to find a political solution to the conflict, which is now more urgent than ever." The EU institutions, for the moment, are silent in the face of the unexpected setback. By mid-afternoon on Sunday, neither the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, nor the President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, had yet spoken on the defeat of the pro-Western regime in Afghanistan.

The brilliant advance of the Islamist forces has surprised the EU countries, which until this week were confident of a negotiated transition between the Taliban and Ashraf Ghani. The arrival of the Taliban in Kabul this Sunday has triggered a stampede by diplomatic delegations present in Afghanistan, including those from EU countries. Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands or Sweden, among other community partners, have announced the transfer of their diplomatic staff to airport facilities in the Afghan capital, a place considered safe for now, or their immediate evacuation to the countries of origin. Commercial flights no longer operate at the aerodrome

Only China and Russia seemed to take it for granted that the fall of the Ghani government was a matter of days, not weeks. Moscow has rushed on Sunday to express its intention to work with the new authorities, although it has not yet officially recognized the new Taliban regime. Beijing was even more cautious. On July 28, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met in the Chinese city of Tanjin with a delegation of the Taliban chaired by one of its founders, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar.