After five years since the withdrawal of the US from Afghanistan, the Taliban is inviting Americans to return — with diplomats and capital, but without a military presence. “We believe that the chapter of war is over, and from now on we want relations based on mutual respect and a new page of positive interaction,” stated Afghanistan’s Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi in an interview with The New York Times in Kabul.
Muttaqi noted that the US could “reopen its embassy, maintain a diplomatic presence, and invest” in Afghanistan’s significant mineral resources, dams, and roads. Three US administrations and their allies spent billions of dollars developing these projects, while Taliban insurgents tried to destroy them over two decades. This public proposal, the first from such a high-ranking Taliban representative in many years, is another attempt by the Afghan authorities to emerge from international isolation, which has so far yielded mixed results.
Diplomatic efforts and challenges
Over the past year, the Taliban administration has signed a defense partnership with Russia and concluded dozens of trade agreements with Central Asian neighbors, including Uzbekistan. Some of its representatives regularly visit Persian Gulf countries and have met with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa. The authorities also cooperate with European countries interested in deporting Afghan migrants.
According to five former American and Afghan officials familiar with Kabul’s approach, resuming interaction with the Trump administration, which emphasizes commercial diplomacy and pays less attention to human rights issues, would be seen as a major achievement of the Taliban’s diplomatic efforts.
The Taliban claims to have established order and security in Afghanistan, cleared the government apparatus of corruption, and created favorable conditions for foreign investment. However, attempts to engage with the US have reached a deadlock. “There is no desire in Washington,” said Hassan Abbas, an American scholar and author of a recent book about the Taliban in power. “No one wants to touch this issue. Everyone wants to forget about Afghanistan.”
Over the past year, the Trump administration has further distanced itself from the Taliban. It has drawn closer to Pakistan, one of Afghanistan’s neighbors, which earlier this year carried out dozens of airstrikes on Afghan territory. Washington has also become embroiled in a conflict with Iran — another neighbor of Afghanistan and one of the few consistent partners of the Taliban.
The US has also held the Taliban responsible for unlawful detentions, suspended visa issuance to Afghans, and banned them from entering the United States. The Taliban, for its part, has rejected several public proposals from President Trump, including regaining control over Bagram Air Base, which American military used for 20 years, returning American weapons left in Afghanistan, and releasing an American prisoner whom the Taliban denies holding.
“No Afghan wants or can tolerate the military presence of another country on Afghan soil, as history has shown,” Muttaqi said this week at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, sitting in a chair against the backdrop of the Taliban’s white flag.
In a written response to questions, the US State Department dismissed the prospect of normalizing relations. The response, attributed to “a department spokesperson,” noted that the Taliban has failed to make Afghanistan more stable and has not fulfilled its counterterrorism commitments, instead allowing terrorist groups to use the country as a base for attacks. The State Department emphasized that the US engages with the Taliban “only when it serves the interests of the American people.”
Migration negotiations and economic prospects
Muttaqi, a Taliban veteran and a key figure in past negotiations between the US and the group before its return to power, stated that his administration wants to resume diplomatic missions in the United States. The 55-year-old Muttaqi also confirmed that Afghanistan is negotiating with European countries on migration agreements. “We have made progress in this area and hope for significant further progress in the future,” he said, without going into details.
In recent months, Afghan authorities have held several bilateral meetings on migration with countries such as Germany and France. A delegation of five Afghan diplomats also met with more than 20 diplomats from 15 EU countries in Brussels in June. The parties discussed the repatriation of rejected asylum seekers and convicted criminals, reported three meeting participants and an official informed about the negotiations.
One of the participants, an Afghan diplomat, stated that in Europe, “the taboo on talking to the Taliban has been broken,” and now Afghanistan is ready to hold bilateral negotiations with all interested countries to conclude relevant agreements.
Meanwhile, no European country recognizes the Taliban administration as the legitimate authority of Afghanistan. The government remains an international outcast and has no access to organizations such as the United Nations and the International Monetary Fund. The ultra-conservative Taliban leader Sheikh Haibatullah Akhundzada is under an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court in a case involving crimes against humanity related to the persecution of Afghan women and girls. Meanwhile, the US has frozen billions of dollars in assets of the Central Bank of Afghanistan.
Despite this, an increasing number of American analysts and former diplomats are calling for the resumption of US-Afghan dialogue that would go beyond cooperation in counterterrorism, countering the “Islamic State,” and negotiations on prisoners. Robin Raphel, a former American diplomat with extensive experience in Afghanistan and Pakistan, stated that President Trump has an opportunity to do what President Joseph R. Biden Jr. could not.
According to Raphel, overcoming the current diplomatic deadlock could give the US access to Afghan minerals, strengthen relations with Afghanistan’s Central Asian neighbors, and help counter China and Russia, which trade with the country and have diplomatic representations there. “But this requires direct interaction through a US presence in Kabul, which remains a difficult task for Washington,” she noted.
In his first conversation with The Times earlier this year, Muttaqi called Afghan deposits a potential starting point for “a new chapter in the relations between the two countries.” “I see President Trump’s ability to make deals, his pragmatic approach, and determination as factors that can contribute to constructive interaction with his administration,” he said.
Michael Kugelman, a senior South Asia scholar at the Atlantic Council in Washington, stated that mineral resources are the right argument for the Trump administration. Afghanistan has significant untapped reserves of lithium, copper, and other minerals.
