Shah Mahmood Miakhil, former Deputy Defense Minister in the previous republican government, has described the recent security and technical agreement between the Taliban administration and Russia as harmful to Afghanistan\u2019s long-term national interests. He warned that such agreements could turn the country into a battleground for regional power rivalries.<\/p>\n
In an analytical article published by Al Jazeera, Miakhil emphasized that Afghanistan currently faces a serious legitimacy crisis both politically and legally, which limits the political and international credibility of any agreement. He argued that until a legitimate system accepted by the people is established, external agreements will not have a sustainable foundation.<\/p>\n
Miakhil sees the closeness between Russia and the Taliban as driven mainly by short-term security and political needs and stated that these relations are not based on a deep and lasting strategic partnership. He added that Russia\u2019s and China\u2019s focus in Afghanistan is primarily on security concerns, preventing the spread of extremism, and controlling drug trafficking, rather than providing extensive economic and developmental support.<\/p>\n
The article noted that fulfilling strategic expectations in Afghanistan appears unrealistic since Russia lacks both broad economic capacity and necessary military strength to offer substantial and comprehensive support. According to Miakhil, the military equipment left from the previous government is either worn out or unusable due to a lack of logistical support.<\/p>\n
He warned that the security agreement between the Taliban administration and Russia may not produce significant practical achievements but could further entangle Afghanistan in international power competitions. Miakhil stated that no country can maintain a stable strategic relationship simultaneously with powers that have conflicting interests, as this situation shifts the country from equilibrium toward pressure and dependency.<\/p>\n
Miakhil considers internal legitimacy a prerequisite for international legitimacy and stressed that without popular participation and political inclusion, gaining global credibility is impossible. He concluded that Afghanistan\u2019s future stability will not be secured through agreements with foreign powers but through establishing a legal, inclusive, and legitimate system\u2014one that transforms the country from a field of rivalry into a bridge for regional cooperation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Former Afghan official warns Taliban-Russia agreement threatens national interests and could deepen regional power struggles amid Afghanistan’s legitimacy crisis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14346,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-important-news","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}