Kazakhstan Removes Taliban from List of Banned Organizations

Kazakhstan's authorities have decided to remove the Taliban from the list of banned organizations. This was stated by Aibek Smadiarov, the official representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan, in an interview with Kazinform agency.

According to the official representative, following the Taliban's complete control over Afghanistan in 2021, the group has been attempting to establish diplomatic relations with various countries, including Kazakhstan, and is actively building trade relations with its closest neighbors.

In response to a question about why this decision was made, he answered: “Kazakhstan regularly reviews the national list of banned terrorist organizations in the Republic of Kazakhstan to update it. In this context, a decision was made, in accordance with UN practice, to exclude the Taliban from the list. Thus, according to the mandatory resolutions of the UN Security Council, the Taliban movement is not included in the list of organizations recognized as terrorist by the UN Security Council.”