The five-strong Taliban team will only be allowed to stay in Belgium for one day
A Taliban delegation has secured visas to travel to Brussels and is expected to arrive on Tuesday, according to sources familiar with the preparations.
“The five visas of the Taliban delegation were issued this Monday in the late afternoon, after the security analysis carried out by the State Security Service and our military intelligence service specified that it had no information allowing it to conclude that the persons concerned constitute a threat on Belgian territory,” a spokesperson for Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot told Euractiv.
According to the Belgian foreign affairs ministry, the visas are valid only for Belgium – not the wider Schengen area – and only for a single day. Sources told Euractiv that the meeting is scheduled for Tuesday.
The visit marks a significant step in a politically sensitive effort by European governments to establish technical-level contacts with Afghanistan’s de facto rulers on migration and returns.
