In an unexpected turn of events, both Afghan embassies in the United Kingdom and Austria continue to operate in spite of Sunday’s announcement by Abdul Qahar Balkhi, the Taliban Foreign Affairs Spokesperson. Mr. Balkhi declared that the de-facto Taliban authorities were suspending consular services at these embassies citing the diplomatic missions’ lack of coordination with Taliban leadership. Yet, the embassies in question seem to remain open.
The embassies’ persistence comes following the Taliban’s notice that asserted, “Please note that these embassies have not been transparent or coordinating their work with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. As a result, all their services are hereby invalid until further notice, effective from October 8, 2023.”
The diplomatic missions in both Vienna and London have responded to this development by asserting that it is business “as usual.”. Both these embassies currently do not recognize the Taliban government in Afghanistan.
A representative from the Embassy of Afghanistan to the United Nations in Geneva highlighted the lack of correlation between the Taliban and Afghanistan’s diplomatic missions. The representative confirmed that consular services in all embassies and representative offices were proceeding in accordance with standards recognized by the Vienna Convention of 1962. The representative also noted that the embassies had not processed any Taliban sanctioned legal documents due to non-recognition.
Interestingly, days prior to this incident, diplomatic missions in Spain and the Netherlands declared that they were coordinating with Kabul.
In the wake of the Taliban takeover in August 2022, there has been a global reluctance to appoint diplomats to Afghanistan. In a contrasting move, however, China announced the posting of a new ambassador to Afghanistan on September 13.
For more details on the announcement and the continuing events, follow this link.