The federal government is considering reopening the embassy in Kabul.
You still need a short line to the Taliban in order to get your own citizens and local employees out of the country.
Munich - The Taliban's rapid advance on Kabul prevented Markus Potzel from returning to Afghanistan *, at least for the time being.
The renewed appointment of the current Federal Government Commissioner for Afghanistan as ambassador in Kabul failed because the Islamists came to power.
Potzel, who served as ambassador from 2014 to 2016, is currently negotiating with the Taliban in the Qatari capital Doha.
But slowly there are increasing signs that a German ambassador could soon return to Kabul.
Embassy in Kabul: Around 40,000 local employees still in Afghanistan
After taking power, the Taliban are gradually relocating their personnel from Doha to Kabul, and the German government has a keen interest in not letting go of the close ties.
Because without the Taliban, it will hardly be possible for the 40,000 or so people that Germany wants to take out of the country after the end of the evacuation flights.
It's about local staff * from German institutions, their relatives and around 300 German citizens.
“We will have to deal with this topic for a long time.
That is why we need the contacts, ”said Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (SPD) on Wednesday in Doha.
"If it were politically possible and if the security situation allows, then Germany should have its own embassy again in Kabul." But they want to wait and see who the Taliban will accept into their government.
There will be no recognition for the Taliban for the time being
According to Maas, who did not speak directly to the Taliban himself, they have basically declared their willingness to allow local staff to leave the country.
But what is the price for the Taliban's willingness to cooperate?
The Islamists are primarily concerned with two things: money and recognition.
Germany had pledged aid to Afghanistan amounting to 430 million euros for this year.
They are now on hold.
Only emergency aid, for example for internally displaced persons, is still paid.
But Potzel has promised the resumption of development aid under certain conditions - his most important lever in the talks.
The situation is different with recognition.
For now, the Taliban cannot count on that.
You don't want to get used to the new rulers that quickly.
"At the moment it is not about the question of recognition under international law," says Maas.
“It's about solving very practical problems.” The reopening of the embassy would also not be a formal recognition of a new government.
Maas says the Taliban also need international help in other areas, for example to be able to operate the airport in Kabul again.
In principle, the western states cannot be blackmailed in the talks.
Clear prerequisites for talks are "the observance of human rights, the fact that people can continue to leave the country at all, that no terrorist groups are given shelter in Afghanistan".
Local staff appear to be able to leave the country
It seems unclear whether the Taliban will be impressed by this.
Prominent Afghan al Qaeda supporters have returned to the country in recent days.
Reports of human rights violations by the Taliban have been going on for months from different parts of the country.
And the formation of a government is likely to run differently than Maas demanded.
In any case, members of governments of the past 20 years will not be involved, the Taliban now announced.
After all, it does seem possible for local staff to leave the country.
The Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung and the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung reported that they had succeeded in enabling all of their Afghan local staff and their relatives to leave the country by land.
You are now in Pakistan.
According to dpa, there should be around 100 people.
Many details about the action are not yet known.
To what extent the federal government was involved, a spokesman for the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung left open to our newspaper.
He only announced that the action was made possible primarily through networks of the local foundations.
Stefan Reich and Michael Fischer
* Merkur.de / bayern is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA