Nearly five years after returning to power, Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities have expanded working relations with regional and European governments, although Russia remains the only country to formally recognize their rule.
Formal recognition remains limited by concerns over the rights of women and girls. Trade, security and migration, however, have drawn a growing number of governments into direct contact with Kabul.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the government “seeks relations with all countries,” with neighboring states taking priority because Afghanistan’s economic interests are closely tied to the region.
Kabul has hosted envoys from China, Japan, Türkiye, Saudi Arabia and Britain. Officials from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan also met in the Afghan capital in April as Central Asian governments pursued trade routes through Afghanistan to ports farther south.
Erica Gaston of the United Nations University Centre for Policy Research said regional governments had long been “more pragmatic” in their dealings with the Taliban, largely accepting engagement as inevitable.
Taliban officials have promoted cross-border infrastructure and mining projects as the country struggles with cuts in international aid. Chinese and other foreign companies have shown interest in Afghanistan’s natural resources, although sanctions and the lack of wider recognition continue to deter investment.
Contacts with European governments have also increased. In June, a Taliban delegation held talks in Brussels with European Union officials and representatives of 15 member states, mainly on the return of Afghans without a legal right to remain in Europe.
Germany deported 31 Afghan men in July, including one without a criminal record — the first such case since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021.
Deeper ties remain constrained by the Taliban’s restrictions on women and girls. Girls are barred from secondary and higher education, while Afghan female staff have been prevented from entering United Nations premises since September 2025.
The International Criminal Court last year issued arrest warrants for Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada and chief justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani over allegations of the crime against humanity of gender-based persecution.
India has also strengthened its contacts with Kabul. In June, its U.N. envoy, Parvathaneni Harish, called for a reassessment of international sanctions on Taliban officials.
“The political reality of Afghanistan has changed in the last five years, and the current U.N. sanctions regime must take that into account,” he said.
