Indonesia: Taliban representatives visited ‘unofficially’

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Representatives of Afghanistan’s Taliban regime traveled to Indonesia earlier this month on an unofficial visit, Jakarta’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday, even as Kabul said it would meet with politicians from the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country.

The Taliban regime, which took back power in August 2021, is trying to shore up recognition of its authority across the Islamic world, including courting Indonesia to strengthen political and economic ties.

But Indonesia has not recognized the legitimacy of Afghanistan’s Taliban government since it regained control two decades after US-led forces toppled its regime.

“My understanding is that they were in Jakarta unofficially for internal affairs with the Afghanistan mission,” Indonesia’s foreign ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah told AFP.

He said the visit could not be described as a delegation because that could imply “some kind of formality”.

But Afghanistan’s deputy foreign ministry spokesman Hafiz Zia Ahmad tweeted on July 14 that one of the government’s top diplomats was leading a “delegation” to Indonesia.

“The delegation held useful meetings and discussions with some scholars, politicians and businessmen in Indonesia to strengthen bilateral political and economic relations,” he wrote.

The official did not reveal which Indonesian politicians met the Afghan delegation.

Faizasyah said there were no official meetings between Afghan and Indonesian government officials.

Relations between the two Muslim-majority nations have long been based on religious solidarity, and in 2018 President Joko Widodo visited his then-Afghan counterpart Ashraf Ghani, a leader who fled when the Taliban took control of Kabul.

Ahmad said in a tweet that Afghan representatives also met diplomats from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Singapore while in the Indonesian capital.

No country or world body has officially recognized the Taliban government, and only a few nations have a presence in Afghanistan.

Jakarta reopened its embassy in Kabul last year after it was closed following the Taliban takeover.

In recent months, Taliban officials have closed women’s beauty parlors and carried out at least two public executions as they seek to fully implement all aspects of their interpretation of Sharia law.

A report to the UN Human Rights Council by Richard Bennett, the special rapporteur on Afghanistan, concluded last month that the country’s rulers may be “responsible for gender-based apartheid”, worsening the plight of women and girls under its harsh law.

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