The Loop, 10 July 2026
In an opinion piece, Kaweh Kerami, ESRC Postdoctoral Fellow, School of Government and International Affairs, Durham University, writes that
… the Taliban’s first EU-hosted visit to Brussels was not recognition, as the EU insists, but something politically consequential all the same: proof that repeated contact can hand an unrecognised regime real standing, one technical meeting at a time. (…) The Taliban do not just want flags and embassies. They want proof that European governments cannot get things done without them. Readmission cooperation gives them exactly that.
He also points to an important gap in EU statements on the matter:
In public, the Commission said the talks concerned Afghans convicted of serious crimes or flagged as security risks. But the written invitation, seen by Euronews, said something broader: Afghan nationals with ‘no right to stay in the EU,’ and with no mention of crime at all. That gap between the public and private lines is what ‘technical’ is meant to hide.
Revisions:
This article was last updated on 16 Jul 2026
