“Taliban Sanctuaries in Afghanistan’s Border Areas Prevent Stability in Country”

The European Union (EU) special envoy for Afghanistan in an exclusive interview with Ariananews said Taliban’s safe havens in bordering areas prevent stability of the country.

The European diplomat says the U.S. and Europe spend $30 billion annually for military and development sectors of Afghanistan.

EU special representative for Afghanistan, Franz-Michael Mellbin said, “the existence of sanctuaries for the Taliban have been hugely detrimental to our ability to make sure that Afghanistan’s stabilizes and that is very costly. The US and Europe spend more than 30 billion dollars per year in assistance for Afghanistan both development wise and military.”

Franz-Michael Mellbin noted Afghanistan will have a difficult year ahead and the differences between government leaders should not weakens fight against insurgency. “I think it is a huge challenge that this unity within the government ranks may lead to weakening of the collective to counter the insurgency. It is very important for all Afghan politicians to stand together and show that Afghan people collectively in a very strong unified fashion are facing the enemy.”

The European Union has recently finished an anti-corruption campaign in Afghanistan. Mellbin calls for more attention by the Afghan government regarding the existence of corruption.

” Unfortunately, Corruption is widespread in Afghanistan. We have a lot of low level corruption. The people taking money for giving documents and other things like that. Role of law and justice are the important issues. there is huge amount of impunity for corrupt practices and it of course make it difficult to stop corruption.”

Earlier, The European Union and the Afghan government signed Cooperation Agreement on Partnership and Development.