On Wednesday, officials from Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Russia held talks with the chief of the Taliban’s political office, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, in Qatar as insurgents make significant territorial gains in Afghanistan.
A Taliban official told RFE/RL that Baradar met Turkmen Deputy Foreign Minister Vepa Hajiev and the Uzbek presidential envoy to Afghanistan, Ismatulla Irgashev, in Qatar to discuss the developments in Afghanistan. Suhail Shaheen, the Taliban spokesperson, tweeted on Thursday that Baradar also met the Russian special envoy to Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov.
The Turkmen Foreign Ministry said Hajiev was in Doha to attend the “international meeting on the advancement of peace talks” between the Afghan government and the Taliban. During the meeting with Baradar, Hajiev discussed the “security of Turkmenistan’s diplomatic missions in Afghanistan” and bilateral relations, border issues, economic projects.
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Shaheen tweeted that the Taliban “assured the neighbouring country regarding [the] security of its diplomatic centres and economic projects.” He added that the group hoped that “friendly relations” between Turkmenistan and the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, a reference to how the Taliban envisions the country, “further develop in the future.”
It was not immediately clear what the Russian and Uzbek envoys discussed with Baradar. However, they were officially participating in discussions in Doha to accelerate the Afghan peace process and seek an immediate halt to attacks on provincial capitals and cities in Afghanistan by the Taliban. The talks, which saw representatives from the United Nations, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Russia, Pakistan, China, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, called for all “constructive measures on attaining acceptable and realistic political settlement in Afghanistan.”
Central Asian countries, including Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, have been affected by the Taliban’s offensives in Afghanistan. Thousands of Afghan soldiers have sought refuge in these countries after the militant group launched attacks to capture districts along the borders. Tajikistan and Turkmenistan have reacted by reinforcing security measures and deploying thousands of troops to their borders.
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Moreover, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan held a week-long military exercise that concluded earlier this week. Around 2,500 troops from all three countries participated in the drills held at a training ground about 20 kilometres away from the Afghan-Tajik border.
Since the withdrawal of American and NATO forces from Afghanistan, the Taliban has been rapidly advancing against Afghan security forces to capture more territory. This week alone, insurgents captured 12 of Afghanistan’s 34 provincial capitals, including Kandahar, Herat, and Ghazni. The US intelligence officials have warned that with the Taliban’s current rate of progress, Kabul could come under pressure from the militants in just 30 days and fall to the group within 90 days.