Urgent meeting of the Union on Tuesday regarding the situation in Afghanistan

Each EU member countries’ respective minister of foreign affairs will be attending a videoconference on Tuesday, discussing the current situation in Afghanistan – stated the press office of the Ministerial Council on Monday.

Following the newest developments in Afghanistan, as well as several long-winded discussions with partners, I made the decision of calling the member states’ ministers of foreign affairs together for a conference on Tuesday afternoon – announced Josep Borrell, the EU’s High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, in his Twitter-message on Monday.

Several members of the Union have already started the process of evacuating their own diplomatic staff from the capital of Afghanistan after the radical Islamist Taliban seized control over most of the country, including its capital, Kabul.

With the beginning of the withdrawal of American as well as other international forces in May, the Taliban rebels has launched an attack against the government forces. In the last week or so, they have taken over all the country’s provincial centers, almost without having to fire a single gunshot. In most places the forces of the government either made close to no attempts at resistance or flat out none. Asraf Gáni, Afghan minister, left the country on Sunday, soon after that, the insurgents seized the capital, too.