Zsolt Németh, the head of Hungary’s delegation to the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly (PACE), called for the support of “regional powers” in the countries around Afghanistan to prevent mass migration from the country.
Speaking at the PACE debate on the situation in Afghanistan in the wake of the withdrawal of US and NATO troops, Németh said the international community should strive for close humanitarian cooperation with Afghanistan’s neighbouring countries.
Németh told MTI during a break of the meeting that the withdrawal had ended a 20-year period when “Western powers, Hungary among them, made considerable sacrifices to try and help promote peace and democracy in the country.”
“The decision to leave the country is understandable and justified. However, the implementation and the consequences, as well as the human and financial sacrifices of the past two decades, have had an extremely negative impact on the Western world’s reputation,” Németh said.
In the future, Western powers would have to form “operational cooperation” with the Taliban, he said. That cooperation should be tied to “strict conditions”, such as preventing a humanitarian disaster and further waves of migration, he added. The changes in Afghanistan and their broader effects could be similar to the global power shifts following the collapse of communism in central Europe in 1989-90, he said.
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