Russia's Formal Recognition A Shot In The Arm For The Taliban

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Moreover, Russia has also been involved in facilitating national reconciliation and settlement in Afghanistan. It has been making its presence felt in the region, through multilateral platforms such as the Moscow Format of Consultations, the regional Quartet (Russia, China, Iran and Pakistan), the Collective Security Treaty Organization and the Shanghai Cooperation Organizatio

Moscow's distinct perception of regional geopolitics and security also shapes its engagement with the Taliban, whose writ over Afghanistan cannot be ignored anymore. A working relationship with the Taliban is considered germane to how Moscow views security on its southern borders as well as in Central Asia.

Those five post-Soviet countries, according to Moscow, still consider Russia to be their regional security guarantor. The stability of Afghanistan is deemed crucial in

• preventing uncontrollable refugee flows to the Central Asian countries and Russia;
• stopping terrorists and other criminals crossing those borders ;
• stopping the spread of Islamic radicalization in Central Asia and Russia; and
• stopping the flow of drugs.

Moreover, Russia will want to leverage the post-American vacuum in Afghanistan, to take the first-mover advantage in this case, to re-establish its strategic footprint – something it lost post 1989.

From pure geostrategic considerations and Russia's sphere of influence in Central Asia, any lingering presence of the United States in Afghanistan will be an eyesore for Moscow. However, Moscow did attempt to draw in the US, in its dialogue with the Taliban that included India, China, Pakistan, Afghanistan and the five Central Asian countries.

The Taliban and the world: a new normal?

Although no state before Russia had formally recognized the Taliban administration since its return to power on August 15, 2021, the group has experienced significantly less international isolation this time than it did during its earlier rule. On February 5, 2025, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed that the administration was engaging with 40 countries on diplomatic affairs .

Soon after the Taliban's takeover of Kabul for the second time, many countries evacuated their embassies or temporarily closed them down due to the deteriorating security situation in the country. However, some regional countries such as Iran, China, Pakistan, most of the Central Asian Republics, Qatar, UAE, Turkiye and Russia maintained diplomatic presences in Kabul, keeping their missions operational.

Without the final step of formal recognition, as of 2025 over a dozen countries had appointed ambassadors to Kabul, including China, Pakistan, Iran, Japan, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Uzbekistan . In addition, several regional states, such as India, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, maintained diplomatic engagement at the level of chargés d'affaires (CDAs ).

The United States, the United Kingdom, Italy, the Netherlands and South Korea conduct their diplomatic engagement with Afghanistan through their missions based in Doha, Qatar. Other countries, including Belgium, Brazil, Nepal and Sri Lanka, sustain such engagement via their embassies in Islamabad, Pakistan.

In December 2023, China became the first country to formally accept a Taliban-appointed ambassador, while the Islamic Emirate's first military attaché was received in Moscow in March 2024 .

In addition to diplomatic exchanges, the Taliban administration hosted several high-level visits, most notably, in 2024, that of the Uzbek Prime Minister, the highest-ranking foreign official to visit Kabul since the group's return to power.

From 2021 onward, Taliban officials have also held multiple meetings with representatives from various international/regional bodies, including the United Nations (UN), the European Union's Special Envoy for Afghanistan, the Economic Cooperation Organization and member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council.

In June 2024, a Taliban delegation participated for the first time in the high-level UN-led meeting of special envoys to Afghanistan in Doha. That was the third such meeting. The Taliban made its attendance conditional on the exclusion of Afghan civil society representatives, a demand that the UN ultimately accepted.

These developments reflect the Taliban's expanding diplomatic outreach and their increasing, albeit limited, acceptance on regional and international platforms.