On 29 December 2023, Kazakhstan announced the removal of the Taliban from its list of terror organisations. This was the latest step taken by a Central Asian country in attempting to accommodate the regime in the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. Apart from Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan have engaged diplomatically with the Taliban. The realignment in their approach marks a stark contrast to their acrimonious attitude towards the first Taliban regime during the 1990s. However, Tajikistan continues to take a hostile stance toward the Taliban regime. Geopolitical and geo-economic considerations have ensured that these nations, barring Tajikistan, maintain a multi-vector approach towards the Afghan Taliban regime so as to create space for cooperation and collaboration.

In the 1990s, the regional countries, excluding Turkmenistan, had adopted a hostile approach towards the Taliban, fearing spill over of radicalised Deobandi ideology spreading from a destabilised Afghanistan. This was despite their shared socio-cultural connect. Tajikistan, by then, served as a cautionary tale of the impact of radicalisation, having experienced a civil war between the Islamists and the first post-Soviet government under Emomali Rahmon.

Post the collapse of the first Taliban regime in the 2001, the major concern of the Central Asian states was on the home-grown terror groups who were engaged in jihad in Afghanistan such as the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and the Islamic Jihadi Union. These groups had pledged allegiance to the Taliban for decades until the rise of Islamic State in Khorasan Province (ISKP).

Central Asian countries, though, have refrained from bestowing official diplomatic recognition on the Taliban. Nonetheless, frequent engagement between representatives at various levels has been established since 2021 after Taliban took over Kabul. Turkmenistan, owing to its neutrality policy, has maintained continuity in its approach towards the regime as it did in the 1990s. Along with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, it has also maintained trade relations with Afghanistan and assisted in the reintegration of the Afghan economy into the regional economy.1

One of the first countries to establish direct talks with the Afghan regime was Uzbekistan. It has maintained its ties with the Taliban for over two years to shield the country from attacks launched from the bordering areas of Northern Afghanistan (Hairatan town in Balkh Province) near Termez, Uzbekistan and also to........

© IDSA