E.U. Pledges $1.15 Billion in Afghan Aid as U.S. Talks to Taliban

WASHINGTON — World leaders met virtually connected Tuesday to sermon ways of preventing an economical and humanitarian catastrophe successful Afghanistan, but the Biden medication maintained a cautious stance toward providing much enactment to the Taliban-ruled country.

The European Union pledged $1 cardinal euros, oregon $1.15 billion, successful assistance to Afghanistan and to neighboring countries, arsenic Group of 20 leaders separately affirmed their enactment for quality rights and stableness successful the country.

“We indispensable bash each we tin to avert a large humanitarian and socio-economic illness successful Afghanistan,’’ Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, said successful a statement. “We request to bash it fast.”

After 2 meetings with Taliban officials implicit the past fewer days, however, the Biden medication did not denote immoderate caller American assistance for the state arsenic it navigates its attack to an Afghan authorities tally by a radical that battled the United States for astir 20 years.

Experts said the E.U. funding, immoderate of which had already been pledged past month, was astatine champion a impermanent solution to the tremendous request successful Afghanistan, a federation of 30 cardinal whose fiscal strategy is connected the verge of collapse. Most planetary assistance to the state has been chopped disconnected since mid-August, erstwhile the Afghan authorities collapsed and the Taliban took power.

The Group of 20 gathering produced a declaration of mostly acquainted principles, including the request to support the rights of Afghan women and for the Taliban to let humanitarian assistance to travel unimpeded. President Biden participated successful the virtual gathering, but immoderate cardinal leaders, including President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and President Xi Jinping of China, did not.

The Biden medication affirmed enactment for “using diplomatic, humanitarian, and economical means” to assistance the Afghan radical — but lone aft it archetypal stressed that leaders astatine the gathering discussed the request to support a “laser focus” connected counterterrorism and the harmless transition from the state of overseas nationals and Afghans eligible for asylum successful the United States.

Officials said that coercion and harmless transition were the main topics of treatment successful a abstracted brace of meetings U.S. officials held with Taliban representatives successful Doha, Qatar, implicit the past respective days — the archetypal of their benignant since the Taliban formed a authorities past month. Larger and acold much fraught decisions, specified arsenic whether to assistance the Taliban diplomatic recognition, oregon unfreeze billions of dollars of Afghan assets, are not imminent, officials said.

In a briefing for reporters connected Tuesday, the State Department’s spokesman, Ned Price, said that denying a haven to violent groups similar Al Qaeda and ensuring a mode retired of the state for endangered radical were “core nationalist interests,” a statement helium did not use to assistance for the Afghan people.

Further societal chaos could substance radicalism wrong Afghanistan’s borders and acceptable disconnected exile flows astatine a clip erstwhile Europe is inactive grappling with a migrant surge implicit the past decennary that has destabilized governments and fueled far-right nationalism.

Mr. Price noted that the United States had approved astir $64 cardinal successful humanitarian assistance for the state successful caller weeks, and that a typical from the U.S. Agency for International Development joined a play league that U.S. officials held with the Taliban.

Decisions with much sweeping implications — including whether to officially admit the caller Afghan government, and the captious question of whether to unfreeze $9.5 cardinal successful Afghan nationalist assets held by the Federal Reserve — would beryllium connected however the Taliban chooses to govern the country, Mr. Price said.

Laurel Miller, the manager of the Asia Program for the International Crisis Group, a nonprofit enactment focused connected deadly conflicts, said the acold facts of Afghanistan’s needs were “in nonstop struggle with the authorities of the situation.”

“How tin the Biden medication merchandise those assets without being accused of giving billions of dollars to the Taliban?” she said.

Ms. Miller said that humanitarian assistance would assistance successful the near-term but could lone bash truthful overmuch to prop up a state facing the imaginable of economical collapse.

A shattered banking and outgo strategy could besides severely complicate the organisation of overseas aid. In a statement, Necephor Mghendi, the caput of the Afghanistan delegation of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, warned of “a dire shortfall of cash” that could pb indispensable wellness attraction and different services “to grind to a halt.”

A elder medication authoritative said that the United States was successful nary unreserved to unfreeze the Afghan assets, oregon to supply diplomatic designation — reiterating the U.S. presumption that the Taliban indispensable amusement it is governing inclusively, protecting quality rights, preventing violent enactment and ensuring state of question from the country.

The authoritative besides stressed that releasing the funds would not needfully beryllium the cardinal to averting a humanitarian catastrophe, fixed that the Taliban had yet to beryllium to the planetary assemblage they could responsibly administer and negociate the funds.

Adela Raz, who was the erstwhile Afghan government’s ambassador to Washington earlier the Taliban took power, and who continues to enactment from the country’s embassy without guidance from the Taliban, acknowledged that the United States and different governments faced “very tough” decisions astir however to equilibrium unit connected the Taliban with enactment for regular Afghans.

“The Afghan radical should not beryllium taken hostage,” Ms. Raz said successful an interview.

But she said “there is not overmuch of a change” truthful acold from the Taliban authorities that ruled Afghanistan successful the 1990s, erstwhile it denied basal rights and acquisition to Afghan girls and women, and enforced the instrumentality with amputations and nationalist executions.

For the planetary community, she said, assisting the Afghan radical without supporting the Taliban presented a “unique” challenge. “We person ne'er seen thing similar this before,” she said.

Understand the Taliban Takeover successful Afghanistan

In summation to the Group of 20 meeting, officials from the United States and respective European nations met with Taliban representatives successful Doha successful what the European Union described arsenic “an informal speech astatine a method level” that did not represent designation of the Taliban arsenic a morganatic government.

The E.U. pledge includes 300 cardinal euros for humanitarian assistance already announced, on with different 250 cardinal to supply further enactment to those “in urgent need, notably successful the tract of health,” Ms. von der Leyen said.

The wealth volition spell to planetary organizations already moving successful Afghanistan, arsenic has caller U.S. aid.

The caller Taliban authorities has mostly cooperated with U.N. assistance agencies, António Guterres, the U.N. caput general, said connected Tuesday, and has “progressively granted entree to the areas requested and provided information erstwhile needed.”

Although the Taliban kidnapped and murdered overseas assistance workers during their two-decade insurgency, they person a keen involvement successful placating the planetary assemblage present that they are successful power, arsenic they anticipation to triumph diplomatic designation and nonstop economical enactment to rebuild an impoverished state gutted by decades of war.

Prime Minister Mario Draghi of Italy, who hosted the Group of 20 meeting, called it “the archetypal multilateral effect to the Afghan crisis.” Speaking astatine a quality league astatine the extremity of the meeting, helium added, “Multilateralism is returning.”

Mr. Draghi said the leaders’ discussions had moved beyond blasted for the autumn of Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, an contented helium said dominated past month’s U.N. General Assembly gathering, to the question of humanitarian relief. “At slightest this 1 allows america to flooded the inevitable differences successful points of view,” helium said.

Mr. Draghi said that providing assistance required talking to — but not formally recognizing — the Taliban.

“There is nary alternate to having contacts with them,” helium said. “They are indispensable for this effect to beryllium effective.”