Why German officials are talking to the Taliban

A German delegation just spent several days in the Afghan capital

Photo by Mohammad Husaini on Unsplash

Dear Reader,

It is just over four years since German diplomats beat a hasty retreat from Kabul in the summer of 2021 as the Taliban closed in on the Afghan capital.

The state apparatus that NATO countries spent two decades and countless billions of dollars building collapsed within weeks before the Islamist group that had been ousted from power in 2001.

Since then, only Russia has fully re-established relations with the Islamist government. Western nations have kept their distance, dealing with the Taliban only indirectly through intermediaries such as Qatar.

Last Wednesday, however, a German government official returned to Kabul — a watershed moment, marking the first confirmed visit by a Western government representative to the Afghan capital since 2021.

While Berlin has remained tight-lipped about the details, the Afghan authorities described the meeting as “warm and positive”.

On the Afghan side, former Guantanamo Bay inmate Mohammad Nabi Omari host…