Authors : Shairee Malhotra | Maiwand Safi
Expert SpeakRaisina Debates
Published on Aug 01, 2026
Europe’s evolving engagement with the Taliban illustrates the limits of diplomatic isolation when practical interests demand cooperation
In June 2026, a significant development unfolded in the relationship between the European Union (EU) and the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. European governments had shut down their embassies in Kabul when the Taliban returned to power in August 2021. Last month, however, EU officials hosted a five-member Taliban delegation in Brussels, led by Afghan foreign ministry spokesperson Abdul Qahar Balkhi, after Belgium granted them one-day visas.
As a follow-up to the first meeting, held in Austria in January, the talks focused on migration and the repatriation of Afghan nationals to Afghanistan, amid growing pressure within the EU to accelerate the return of rejected asylum seekers, or those deemed a possible security threat on account of criminal offences committed in host countries.
A Diplomatic Breakthrough?
While the European Commission stressed that the talks do not amount to formal recognition of the Taliban, this represented an important diplomatic achievement for the regime. Through its instrumentalisation of migration dynamics into an opportunity for diplomatic engagement, the Taliban actively engaged the EU. For the first time since the Taliban’s return to power in 2021, an official delegation of the Islamic Emirate held talks with EU officials on European soil, overcoming its five-year diplomatic isolation. According to Balkhi, the visit to Brussels was historic because it marked the first official interaction between the Taliban and the EU.
For the first time since the Taliban’s return to power in 2021, an official delegation of the Islamic Emirate held talks with EU officials on European soil, overcoming its five-year diplomatic isolation.
For Kabul, the visit’s significance went beyond migration issues. The Taliban delegation was focused on confidence-building, maintaining a diplomatic presence within the EU, and ensuring a dignified return process for Afghan nationals. It also reiterated its demand that Taliban-appointed diplomats be allowed to serve in Afghan embassies across the European continent, many of which, apart from Germany, remain staffed by diplomats appointed before August 2021.
But the visit also carried broader diplomatic resonance. With the EU now engaging the Taliban, Kabul possesses leverage in dealings regarding migration. Notably, it was not the Taliban that initiated contact, but the EU that approached them. Discussions regarding the Taliban’s diplomatic presence in Europe, including consular representation, have already begun. Kabul has maintained that the visit sought to advance broader diplomatic engagement and cooperation with the EU. Thus, for the Taliban, the visit was an opportunity to demonstrate that even in the absence of formal recognition, international engagement with Afghanistan persists, and Kabul remains an important participant in discussions affecting both Afghanistan and Europe.
The EU’s Migration Conundrum
For at least a decade, migration has remained among the hottest policy issues for European governments, with far-right parties exploiting the backlash for political gains. The EU has framed its meeting with the Taliban as a response to 20 of the EU’s 27 member states that have urged stricter migration policies and firmer legal pathways for deportations.
According to EU data, member states received approximately one million asylum applications from Afghans between 2013 and 2024, with roughly half approved, making them one of the largest groups of migrants seeking asylum in the EU. As European governments aim to enhance migration controls and accelerate the repatriation of rejected asylum seekers, engagement with the authorities in Kabul has become increasingly difficult to avoid, amid a growing recognition that migration cannot be managed without cooperation with the Taliban.
As European governments aim to enhance migration controls and accelerate the repatriation of rejected asylum seekers, engagement with the authorities in Kabul has become increasingly difficult to avoid, amid a growing recognition that migration cannot be managed without cooperation with the Taliban.
The reality is that the Taliban remains the authority governing Afghanistan. Any substantial arrangement regarding the return of Afghan nationals, the provision of consular services, and the coordination of humanitarian assistance inevitably requires cooperation with the Taliban. For policymakers in Europe, including EU migration chief Magnus Brunner, this is perceived not merely as a matter of political choice, but of political necessity. Meanwhile, Germany and Austria, where deportations are high on the agenda, have already been in talks with Taliban officials, and have deported Afghan nationals with criminal records. Berlin also allowed two Taliban officials to work at the Afghan diplomatic mission in Germany to facilitate further deportations.
The Limits of Engagement
EU officials have consistently reiterated that the meetings were technical in nature, and should not be interpreted as a step towards formal recognition of the Taliban. Yet this line of reasoning remains controversial. Hannah Neumann, a Member of the European Parliament, argues that the talks symbolise a political normalisation of relations with the Taliban without securing any accountability in return. Others condemned the EU for granting the Taliban access without attaching clear conditions or benchmarks to such cooperation. The fact that the EU is granting visas and negotiating deals with the Taliban points to a pattern of de facto, incremental recognition — even as Brussels insists that the talks do not amount to formal recognition of the Islamic Emirate.
Despite the strategic imperative for cooperation, EU-Taliban engagement remains constrained by political and humanitarian challenges. Already, over three million Afghans were forcibly repatriated from Pakistan and Iran in the past year. This large-scale influx has placed additional pressure on a country grappling with severe economic challenges and the consequences of international sanctions. A further increase in deportations from Europe risks exacerbating an already fragile environment, where, according to the United Nations World Food Programme, one-third of the population, numbering over 17 million Afghans, is “food insecure”. Meanwhile, on the Rule of Law Index, Afghanistan ranks 142nd of 143 countries.
Negotiating with the Taliban remains politically contentious within Europe. Human rights organisations have urged the EU not to conclude migration arrangements that could be seen as legitimising the current government in Kabul, arguing that any engagement should stay consistent with the EU’s broader foreign policy principles. The EU is, in fact, in talks with several other countries, including Bangladesh, on taking back citizens with criminal records, among other issues — but cooperation with Afghanistan has attracted far greater political scrutiny, given the unique circumstances surrounding the current government. At the same time, growing domestic demands and far-right pressures within EU member states to tighten migration rules and expedite the repatriation of denied asylum applicants have only heightened the imperative to engage with Kabul. Together, these concerns continue to shape the limits of the EU’s engagement with the Taliban, even as migration pressures push Brussels toward greater practical cooperation.
A Strategic Imperative
The Taliban’s Brussels visit should be understood less as a diplomatic breakthrough and more as evidence of Europe’s growing recognition that practical challenges — migration management, consular affairs, and humanitarian coordination — cannot be addressed without engaging the authorities in Kabul. For the Taliban, meanwhile, its interplay with Brussels can be viewed as a strategic effort to alleviate its global political and economic isolation, while gradually expanding its diplomatic reach by engaging on specific issues.
For Europe, the issue ties into the wider debate on EU migration policy. The EU’s pragmatic yet controversial shift towards selective cooperation with the Taliban, driven by practical considerations on issues of mutual concern, reflects the bloc’s delicate effort to balance its core values against growing domestic pressure to tighten migration policies.
Shairee Malhotrais Deputy Director of the Strategic Studies Programme at the Observer Research Foundation.
Maiwand Safiis a Research Intern with the Strategic Studies Programme at the Observer Research Foundation.
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Authors
Shairee Malhotra
Shairee Malhotra is Deputy Director – Strategic Studies Programme at the Observer Research Foundation.
Her areas of work include Indian foreign policy with a focus on …
Maiwand Safi
Maiwand Safi is a Research Intern with the Strategic Studies Programme at the Observer Research Foundation. He is a senior PhD scholar at South Asian …
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