Tajikistan was the only one of Afghanistan’s neighbors that did not engage in talks with the Taliban prior to the militant group’s conquest of most of Afghanistan. Dushanbe kept quiet about events in Afghanistan before the fall of Kabul and for many days after, but when Tajik President Emomali Rahmon met with Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on August 25, Rahmon said his country would not recognize a Taliban government that did not include representatives from minority groups, naming specifically Afghanistan’s Tajik population.
But even before Rahmon's comments, there were signs that Tajikistan did not welcome the Taliban’s successes in Afghanistan and was loathe to ever engage with the Afghan militant group.
On this week's Majlis podcast, RFE/RL Media-Relations Manager Muhammad Tahir moderates a discussion on Tajikistan’s stance on Afghanistan.
This week’s guests are: from Washington, Paul Stronski, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment’s Russia and Eurasia program; from Prague, Khirimon Bakoeva, senior web editor at RFE/RL’s Tajik Service, known locally as Ozodi; and Bruce Pannier, the author of the Qishloq Ovozi blog.
Copyright (c) 2015. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.