Afghanistan embassies in Britain and Norway loyal to the pro-Western authorities ousted by the Taliban in 2021 discreetly shut down this autumn, as the West seeks a more pragmatic approach to the country's Islamic rulers. The embassy of Afghanistan in London closed on September 27, following the mission in Oslo which shut down on September 12. Both were run by staff loyal to the former authorities of the country, who were ejected from Kabul in the Taliban's lightning offensive in August 2021, a defeat seen as one of the biggest military debacles for the West.
And now a senior Taliban official is even attending the COP29 UN climate talks which began on Monday, joining world leaders and top Western officials at the conference in Baku. Analysts say such moves represent acceptance of the de-facto political reality in Afghanistan and the need to work with its rulers on issues including migration, the fight against drugs, and security. Embassies like those in London and Oslo, in something of a diplomatic quirk, had carried on their work after the Taliban takeover, issuing visas and carrying out other consular work in the name of the Afghan state.
But this summer the Taliban government announced that it "no longer took responsibility" for such passports and visas, adding that it had cut all ties with these embassies. In mid-September, the Taliban government's foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi also accused them of "enormous corruption" and issuing "false documents" with increased pr.