The UK’s foreign secretary has said there needs to be “wider buy-in” from countries in the region around Afghanistan to exert maximum influence on the Taliban.
Speaking at a news conference in Doha with his opposite number from Qatar, Dominic Raab said an “international coalition” needs to be formed to “exert the maximum moderating influence” on the Taliban following its takeover of the central Asian country.
Mr Raab said: “We need to get wider buy-in, regional countries involved… there’s a lot of countries with a direct stake in what happens in Afghanistan, as well as countries who will feel and be moved by the humanitarian risks and the plight.
Image: Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab gave a news conference in Doha alongside his Qatari counterpart
“Above all, we need to put a grouping together that can exert maximum moderating influence on what the Taliban does next. And we will certainly be judging them. Yes, on their words. But more importantly, what they’re willing to do to live up to the assurances that they’ve made.”
Despite saying there was scope for engagement and dialogue with the Taliban, he said the UK has no immediate plans to recognise the group as a government.
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Qatar’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al Thani said the Gulf state was talking with the Taliban and working with Turkey to see if it can provide technical support to restart operations at Kabul airport, but he was unable to give any time line. Sky News understands this might be weeks, rather than days.
It comes as Mr Raab said he hoped that many of those who had worked with the UK and UK-linked organisations – or were part of Afghan civil society but were not among the 17,000 evacuated from Kabul airport – may still be given safe passage out.
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Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab says there is a ‘need’ for ‘direct engagement’ with the Taliban.
Meanwhile, in other developments around Afghanistan:
• Taliban rulers are to unveil their new government, with a ceremony being prepared at the presidential palace
• Prices are soaring, the currency has plunged, shops are closed and the Taliban is struggling to keep banks and essential services running
• Humanitarian organisations have warned of catastrophe as severe drought and the war have forced thousands of families to flee their homes
• The EU has said it is still far from deciding whether it will recognise the Taliban
At the news conference, the Mr Raab said four key points for the future were: stopping Afghanistan becoming a “haven” for terrorists, preventing a humanitarian crisis, preserving regional stability and holding the Taliban to account over its claims it will form a more inclusive government.
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Tom Tugendhat said revealing the document was made on 22 July, before the fall of Kabul, was ‘clearly in the public interest’.
He added that Qatar was a “lynch pin” in dealing with the Afghanistan crisis.
Mr Raab said: “We feel responsibility to make sure that the remaining British nationals and Afghan workers can come to the UK.
“But we are also here and I am here – not just in Qatar but moving on afterwards – to talk to regional countries about how we can ensure safe passage through third countries.
“The reality is, as I have described, we will not be recognising the Taliban any time in the foreseeable future, but I think there is an important scope for engagement and dialogue and testing the intentions and indeed the assurances that have already been made by the Taliban.”
The foreign secretary was anticipated to go on to meet the Amir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al Thani, and his deputy prime minister.
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The foreign secretary would not be drawn on when he started his holiday, calling questions about it a ‘fishing expedition’.
He will meet Foreign Office officials after the British Embassy to Afghanistan was temporarily relocated and is now up and running in Doha.
Following his appearance, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace struck back at Mr Raab’s comments, saying in an interview published on Thursday that history shows “it’s not about failure of intelligence, it’s about the limits of intelligence”.
In a carefully written post on social media platform Telegram, Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused the Russian army of deploying Chinese citizens on the battlefield in eastern Ukraine.
What about the proof? Well, the Ukrainian president says his security services captured two people from China in the Donetsk region – along with identity documents, personal data and their bank cards.
A video of a man in military fatigues who had been captured by Ukraine was pinned to the bottom of the statement.
We get snippets of a conversation where the alleged combatant seems to be talking about the events that led to his capture.
“When we arrived at the place… and then my commander.” The man gestures at the floor and ceiling, making shooting noises. “I was also injured.”
Image: Volodymyr Zelenskyy uploaded a video appearing to show a Chinese citizen in military uniform in Ukrainian custody
These details will make it difficult for the Chinese government to deny the incident out of hand, although they are highly unlikely to supply additional information.
Important details like, who are they? What function(s) do they fulfil in Ukraine’s occupied territories?
Were they volunteers – or mercenaries – who had signed up to fight in the Russian army on their own?
Alternatively, does the Chinese government sanction their involvement – or even encourage it?
The capture of these Chinese nationals in Donetsk begs another question – how many Chinese are actually fighting for Russia? In his post, Mr Zelenskyy said “there are many more Chinese citizens” other than these two.
Still, the Ukrainian president works hard to suggest the Chinese, officially at least, are blameless.
“Russia’s involvement of China in this war… is a clear signal that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is going to do anything but end the war,” he writes on Telegram.
This is a generous interpretation of China’s approach to the conflict, which is quite openly contradictory.
On one hand, Chinese President Xi Jinping describes China as a neutral party to the conflict, while simultaneously offering Mr Putin long-term political and economic support.
In fact, he described their partnership as a “no limits” one in a phone call with Mr Putin on the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Mr Zelenskyy then, is making a point with this post – but he does not want to make the situation any worse.
The severity cannot be overstated, if an additional 50% tariffs are levied on all Chinese goods it will decimate trade between the world’s two biggest economies.
Remember, 50% would sit on top of what is already on the table: 34% announced last week, 20% announced at the start of US President Donald Trump’s term, and some additional tariffs left over from his first term in office.
In total, it means all Chinese goods would face tariffs of over 100%, some as high as 120%.
It’s a price that makes any trade almost impossible.
China is really the only nation in the world at the moment that is choosing to take a stand.
While others are publicly making concessions and sending delegations to negotiate, China has clearly calculated that not being seen to be bullied is worth the cost that retaliation will bring.
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6:50
Tariffs: Xi hits back at Trump
The real question, though, is if the US does indeed impose this extra 50% tomorrow, what could or would China do next?
There are some obvious measures that China will almost certainly enact.
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Further export controls on rare earth minerals (crucial for the development of high-tech products) are one example. China controls a huge proportion of the world’s supply, but the US would likely find workarounds in time.
Hiking tariffs on high-impact US products such as agricultural goods is another option, but there is only so far this could go.
The potentially more impactful options have significant drawbacks for Beijing.
It could, for instance, target high-profile American companies such as Apple and Tesla, but this isn’t ideal at a time when China is trying to attract more foreign investment, and some devaluation of the currency is possible, but it would also come with adverse effects.
Other options are more political and come with the risk of escalation beyond the economic arena.
In an opinion piece this morning, the editor of Xinhua, China’s state news agency, speculated that China could cease all cooperation with the US on the war against fentanyl.
This has been a major political issue for Mr Trump, and it’s hard to see it would not constitute some sort of red line for him.
Other options touted include banning the import of American films, or perhaps calling for the Chinese public to boycott all American products.
Anything like this comes with a sense that the world’s two most powerful superpowers might be teetering on the edge of not just a total economic decoupling, but cultural separation too.
There is understandably serious nervousness about how that could spiral and the precedent it sets.
South Korea’s military said its soldiers fired warning shots at North Korean troops who crossed the demarcation line between the two countries.
Around 10 North Korean soldiers violated the military line on Tuesday, but returned after it made warning broadcasts and fired warning shots, South Korea’s military said.
In a text sent to reporters, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), said “North Korean soldiers crossed the military demarcation line (MDL) in the eastern area of the demilitarised zone (DMZ) around 5:00 pm local time.
Image: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, centre left in a black jacket, stands by what appeared to be a large reconnaissance drone at an undisclosed North Korean location. File pic: AP
“Our military is closely monitoring the North Korean military’s activity and taking necessary measures according to the operational procedures.”
Some of the North Korean soldiers were armed, according to the South Korean military.
There is no clear motive for the crossing, but tensions between the two countries have been running high as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un continues to order missile tests and align with Russia over President Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine.
North Korean special operations units are among the thousands of troops that Pyongyang has sent to Russia to fight in the Ukraine war, according to South Korea.
In January, Pyongyang tested a hypersonic missile of intermediate range, in a sign of its determination to continue its weapons development programme.
Bloodshed and violent confrontations have occasionally occurred at the Koreas’ heavily fortified border, called the Demilitarised Zone, or DMZ.
But when North Korean troops briefly violated the border in June last year, it didn’t escalate as South Korean officials realised they were carrying construction tools and decided the incursion was accidental.
The 155-mile (249km)-long, 2.5-mile (4km)-wide DMZ is the world’s most heavily armed border.