According to the ministry, the minister welcomed the opening of the Azerbaijani embassy in the country, stating that the Afghan side wishes to “start economic and trade cooperation with Baku as soon as possible.”
Ilham Mamedov, as experts recall, is the first Azerbaijani ambassador to Afghanistan after NATO troops were withdrawn from the country, and the Taliban movement returned to power. He arrived in Kabul in mid-February. The opening of the embassy is planned for this year, even though diplomatic relations between the two countries were established 27 years ago.
Theoretically, a more detailed explanation should follow here that establishing diplomatic relations at the embassy level does not yet mean that the embassies themselves will be opened. There are enough precedents in the world where an embassy in one country is responsible for several states, and the representation is headed not by an ambassador but by a chargé d’affaires. However, Afghanistan has its specifics. Not long ago, the expression “establishing diplomatic relations with the Taliban government” sent shivers down the spines of refined Western liberals. But now, after President Joe Biden effectively handed Afghanistan over to them in the spring of 2021 and withdrew the American contingent from the country, followed by the military personnel of other coalition countries, including Azerbaijani peacekeepers, it is no longer possible to criticize anyone for establishing diplomatic relations with the Taliban. Considering that the army of the then Afghan government simply “crumbled” and did not fight the Taliban, all the more so. So today, Azerbaijan is simply promoting its interests, which our country has in Afghanistan.
In fact, there was no Azerbaijani embassy in Afghanistan. But in recent years, relations between the two countries have developed very dynamically. At the time when Ashraf Ghani was the President of Afghanistan, Afghan diplomats were trained in Azerbaijan under UN and NATO programs. Azerbaijan promoted its “social brand” — ASAN, in Afghanistan. Most importantly, investment prospects and cooperation within the transport corridor, romantically named the “Lapis Lazuli Route,” were discussed.
Today, the Taliban are in power, not Karzai or Ghani. Understandably, after the fall of the Ghani government, much was “put on pause,” international support programs were terminated, etc. However, now, as official news from Baku and Kabul shows, Azerbaijan is returning to Afghanistan and is ready to develop cooperation with the new authorities — the Taliban.
The “Turkic factor” also matters here. Of course, the majority of Afghanistan’s population consists of Pashtuns, with Tajiks in second place, but there are also many representatives of Turkic peoples living there. In Afghanistan, traditionally, lines of political “faults” always, or almost always, coincide with ethnic and tribal lines. The Taliban movement consists mostly of Pashtuns. But ignoring the “Turkic factor” in Afghanistan is hardly possible even theoretically. And the Turks in Afghanistan are not only Uzbeks and Turkmens. In the Afghan province of Waziristan, there are many Kyzylbash — ethnic Azerbaijanis who moved to Afghanistan during the time of Nader Shah. All this creates new opportunities and new “points of contact” for relations between Baku and Kabul. While these are very schematic estimates for the future, there is no doubt that the plans of Baku and Kabul are very serious.
Nurani
Translated from Minval.az
