Another Hungarian mission to happen in Afghanistan?
“We need to prevent a terrorist threat and further migration waves”, said the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
The last US military planes left Afghanistan yesterday, bringing an end to a 20-year-long war. The Taliban hailed their victory with gunfire after the troops exited the country. The situation escalated very quickly in the past two weeks. The Taliban took over and are working on reorganising Afghanistan and returning to the old rules, where they had left off 20 years ago.
Afghan people desperately tried to flee the country in this transitional time, giving Europe a real reason to worry about another migration crisis.
Defence Minister: All known Hungarians in Afghanistan evacuated
Moreover, Afghanistan’s destabilisation could directly endanger Turkey’s safety. Back in April, when US President Joe Biden announced their withdrawal, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed his willingness to start a new mission in order to avoid it. As the Hungarian government seeks to strengthen its military cooperation with Turkey, the Prime Minister already indicated its possible future involvement.
Now that Afghanistan is in the hands of the Taliban again, the question resurfaces. Index.hu asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade about the mission jointly planned with Turkey and Pakistan.
“There is an ongoing coordination process about the prevention of mass migration and terrorist threat after the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan”,
they answered.
The original plans of joint Hungarian-Turkish-Pakistani cooperation were rejected when the Taliban took control over the country’s capital, Kabul. Turkish President Erdogan, however, thought otherwise. The next day he announced that Ankara would still be open for cooperation, involving prolonging the military mission and taking part in the armed defence of the Kabul Airport.
The tragic terrorist attack at the Kabul Airport last week, claiming the lives of almost 200 people, means that the Islamic State managed to strengthen its base in Afghanistan.
It could pose a significant risk to the safety of not only the neighbouring countries but indirectly to Europe, as well.
Western military help might mitigate the situation for which the involvement of Turkey can be an accepted scenario both by the United States and the Taliban.
When asked whether the government’s standpoint changed since April and
Hungarian soldiers would join the Turkish mission, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade did not reject the possibility.
They wrote: “The withdrawal of NATO troops from Afghanistan coins several serious questions when it comes to the future safety of Afghanistan and Europe. The gravest among those is the danger of a new migration wave caused by the spread of terrorism.
This terrorist threat and new migration waves need to be prevented.
The necessary steps to do so are currently being negotiated and cooperated. However, there is no decision for now.”