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 Afghanistan |  Germany |
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| Diplomatic mission | |
| Afghan Embassy, Berlin | German Embassy, Kabul (closed) |
Relations between Afghanistan and Germany date back to the late 19th century and have historically been strong. [1] 100 years of "friendship" were celebrated in 2016, with the Afghan President calling it a "historical relationship". [2]
The Treaty of Gandomak (26 or 30 May 1879) and the Treaty of the Durand Line overruled a prior agreement from 1893 concerning 2,640 kilometres (1,640 mi) of porous border between British India (now Pakistan) and Afghanistan. As a result of this treaty Britain gained full control of Afghan foreign policy from the king of Afghanistan. Germany, as a rival to Britain, was only able through secret missions and expeditions to reduce British influence in Afghanistan.
Engineer Gebhard Fleischer, nicknamed The German James Bond in Kabul, [3] was an engineer of the Krupp company, a German arms manufacturer. In 1893 he traveled to Kabul and privately met with the King Abdur Rahman Khan. Under the Kings orders he expanded the Afghan weapons companies Maschin Khana (House of machines) and Tupkhana (cannon house). It is not certain whether the government in British India knew of this journey. Later, in 1904, the Krupp engineers were mysteriously assassinated. Adamec writes:
The first German known to reside in Kabul was Gottlieb Fleischer, an employee of Krupp Stellworks of Essen, Germany, who was contracted by Amir Abdul Rahman in 1898 to start manufacture of ammunitions and arms in the newly constructed factory (mashin Khana) at Kabul. He was killed in November 1904 near the border while traveling to India. [4]
The relations between Germany and Afghanistan began before World War I. Relations between these two countries have historically been friendly. [5]
The second German-Afghan meeting between Habibullah Khan and a 23-member German delegation took place in 1915. The main intentions of this delegation was to weaken British influence in Afghanistan as part of the Niedermayer-Hentig expedition. [6] However, during this expedition in 1916 a friendly trade-agreement occurred. [7] The trade contracted concluded even though there were prior diplomatic relations between these countries. According to the Treaty of 24 January 1916 the German delegation to the Government of Afghanistan was promised 100,000 rifles and 300 guns. [8]
A friendship agreement was made on 3 March 1926. [9] With recognition of the ambassadors in both these countries. In 1926 the prior existing friendship and trade agreement of 24 January 1916 was ratified.
The first Afghan delegation to Germany occurred in 1922 where the delegation traveled to Berlin for talks on diplomacy, trade and cultural relations. In response Germany sent Dr. Fritz Grobba to Afghanistan in 1932. For the first year he worked as Consul in Kabul, acting as the de facto German embassy, until 1926 then managing the ambassadors work in Kabul. The "Embassy" titled as the Diplomatic representation and the residence of the minister plenipotentiary was located in Kabul near the Gardens of Babur. [10] The Afghan King, Amanullah Khan, visited Germany on 22 February 1928 where he met the President of the Weimar Republic, Paul von Hindenburg. [11]
Afghanistan established close ties with Germany prior to 1935 – forming important economic and technical connections, [12] and seeking an alternative to its historical position as a contested territory between the USSR and Britain. Germany increased commercial transactions in Afghanistan during this period, with a weekly Berlin-Kabul air service established, and the Organisation Todt supervised major infrastructure projects in the country. [13]
Afghanistan resisted calls from Moscow and London to expel the Italian and German diplomatic corps at the beginning of the Second World War. During 1940 and 1941, there were plans initiated by Afghan economic minister Abdul Majid Zabuli for Afghanistan to join the Axis bloc in return for Germany providing additional military aid and access to the Karachi Port by taking land from British India. In addition, Zabuli spoke of "liberating" the 15 million strong ethnic Afghan population across the border. However following the Soviet Union's change of allegiance to the United Kingdom, and their joint invasion of Iran, Afghanistan was suddenly surrounded by the Allied forces. It eventually in October 1941 accepted their demand to expel Italians and Germans, although small diplomatic staff remained. [13] Afghanistan was right on the demarcation line between the proposed division of Asia between Germany and Japan. At the end of the Second World War the German military donated its remaining arsenal to Afghanistan as a sign of good faith for its neutral stance during the war. [14] [15]
Afghanistan became one of the first countries to recognize the Federal Republic of Germany as the successor of the Third Reich. Pre-war cooperation was revived in 1950 (with West Germany), [16] although full official relations did not start resume until December 1954. [17] Ghulam Mohammad Farhad, who served as mayor of Kabul from 1948, hired and brought West German engineers and products for the Kabul Electric Company. [17] The Afghan Cultural Office was opened in Munich in 1952. [17] An agreement for economic and technical cooperation was signed between the Federal Republic and the Kingdom on January 31, 1958. [17] Relations temporarily froze following the republican coup in Afghanistan, but was restored by 1976.
Following the Soviet–Afghan War, the West German soldiers stationed in Afghanistan left the country. Qualified West German personnel and advisors left the country in 1980 followed by teaching staff in 1984. [18] Meanwhile, East Germany supported the Soviet role in the country and assisted the Afghan government. [19] Afghanistan and East Germany did not have many links since the latter was recognized in 1973, but this all changed during the Afghan communist regime. Cultural and economic agreements were made, and both countries' media agencies cooperated. The basis was formed following a visit by Afghan leader, Babrak Karmal, to East Germany, after which a Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation was signed on May 21, 1982. Their cooperation had a particular focus on the education sector. [20]
In 1985, total East German solidarity donations to Afghans was over 200 million marks, most of which came from the Free German Trade Union Federation. [20] A 2008 report by the UK Border Agency also states that the Federal Republic of Germany built a police academy in Kabul in 1989, although it was shut down in 1992, following the mujahideen taking over the capital, the fall of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan and the Afghan Civil War lasting from 1992 to 1996. [21]
The German Armed Forces were part of the ISAF mission in Afghanistan from December 2001. Germany hosted the Bonn Conference, which chose Hamid Karzai as Afghanistan's interim leader in 2001. Currently Germany is engaged in a security mission with its military and reconstruction efforts in the northern areas of Afghanistan, and has been one of the principal donors to Afghanistan. [22]
On 23 December 2021, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock warned that Afghanistan is "heading into the worst humanitarian catastrophe of our time," with major economic sectors collapsing and more than 24 million people in need of humanitarian assistance. [23] [24] She promised to speed up the evacuation of more than 15,000 vulnerable Afghans, including local Afghan staff who worked for Germany and their family members. [25]
The foreign relations of Afghanistan are in a transitional phase since the 2021 fall of Kabul to the Taliban and the collapse of the internationally-recognized Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. No country has recognised the new Taliban-run government, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. Although some countries have engaged in informal diplomatic contact with the Islamic Emirate, formal relations remain limited to representatives of the Islamic Republic.
Foreign relations of Kazakhstan are primarily based on economic and political security consideration. The Nazarbayev administration has tried to balance relations with Russia and the United States by sending petroleum and natural gas to its northern neighbor at artificially low prices while assisting the U.S. in the War on Terror. Kazakhstan is a member of the United Nations, Collective Security Treaty Organization, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, North Atlantic Cooperation Council, Commonwealth of Independent States, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, and NATO's Partnership for Peace program. Kazakhstan established a customs union with Russia and Belarus which eventually became the Eurasian Economic Union. President Nazarbayev has prioritized economic diplomacy into Kazakhstan's foreign policy.
Abdul Majid Zabuli was the founder of Afghanistan's banking system. He founded the Ashami company in 1932, which eventually became the Afghan National Bank.
German–Soviet Union relations date to the aftermath of the First World War. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, dictated by Germany ended hostilities between Russia and Germany; it was signed on March 3, 1918. A few months later, the German ambassador to Moscow, Wilhelm von Mirbach, was shot dead by Russian Left Socialist-Revolutionaries in an attempt to incite a new war between Russia and Germany. The entire Soviet embassy under Adolph Joffe was deported from Germany on November 6, 1918, for their active support of the German Revolution. Karl Radek also illegally supported communist subversive activities in Weimar Germany in 1919.
After the Russian Revolution, in which the Bolsheviks took over parts of the collapsing Russian Empire in 1918, they faced enormous odds against the German Empire and eventually negotiated terms to pull out of World War I. They then went to war against the White movement, pro-independence movements, rebellious peasants, former supporters, anarchists and foreign interventionists in the bitter civil war. They set up the Soviet Union in 1922 with Vladimir Lenin in charge. At first, it was treated as an unrecognized pariah state because of its repudiating of tsarist debts and threats to destroy capitalism at home and around the world. By 1922, Moscow had repudiated the goal of world revolution, and sought diplomatic recognition and friendly trade relations with the capitalist world, starting with Britain and Germany. Finally, in 1933, the United States gave recognition. Trade and technical help from Germany and the United States arrived in the late 1920s. After Lenin died in 1924, Joseph Stalin, became leader. He transformed the country in the 1930s into an industrial and military power. It strongly opposed Nazi Germany until August 1939, when it suddenly came to friendly terms with Berlin in the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. Moscow and Berlin by agreement invaded and partitioned Poland and the Baltic States. Stalin ignored repeated warnings that Hitler planned to invade. He was caught by surprise in June 1941 when Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union. The Soviet forces nearly collapsed as the Germans reached the outskirts of Leningrad and Moscow. However, the Soviet Union proved strong enough to defeat Nazi Germany, with help from its key World War II allies, Britain and the United States. The Soviet army occupied most of Eastern Europe and increasingly controlled the governments.
Relations between the Soviet Unionand Japan between the Communist takeover in 1917 and the collapse of Communism in 1991 tended to be hostile. Japan had sent troops to counter the Bolshevik presence in Russia's Far East during the Russian Civil War, and both countries had been in opposite camps during World War II and the Cold War. In addition, territorial conflicts over the Kuril Islands and South Sakhalin were a constant source of tension. These, with a number of smaller conflicts, prevented both countries from signing a peace treaty after World War II, and even today matters remain unresolved.
The Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance, or Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship and Alliance for short, was a bilateral treaty of alliance, collective security, aid and cooperation concluded between the People's Republic of China and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on February 14, 1950. It superseded the previous Sino-Soviet treaty signed by the Kuomintang government.
The Anglo-Afghan Treaty of 1919, also known as the Treaty of Rawalpindi, was a treaty which brought the Third Anglo-Afghan War to an end. It was signed on 8 August 1919 in Rawalpindi, Punjab, by the United Kingdom and the Emirate of Afghanistan. Britain recognised Afghanistan's independence, agreed that British India would not extend past the Khyber Pass and stopped British subsidies to Afghanistan. Afghanistan also accepted all previously agreed border arrangements with British India as per Article 5 of the Anglo-Afghan treaty of 1919. Thus, Afghanistan as an independent country agreed to recognise the Durand Line as international border between the two countries.
Since the early 1980s China has pursued a highly independent foreign policy, formally disavowing too close a relationship with any country or region. The stated goals of this policy were safeguarding world peace, opposing all forms of hegemony, and achieving economic modernization at home. Chinese statements repeatedly emphasized the interrelation among these goals. In other words, China needed a peaceful international environment so that adequate resources could be devoted to its ambitious development plans. The goal of economic modernization was a driving force behind China's increasingly active participation in world affairs, exemplified by its policy of opening up to the outside world, which greatly expanded Chinese economic relations with foreign countries. As part of what it called an "independent foreign policy of peace", Beijing has joined numerous international organizations, and it has maintained diplomatic relations with more nations than at any time since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. By 2007, China has diplomatic relations with 157 nations, and—in contrast with earlier periods—has been willing to interact with governments of different social systems or ideologies on a basis of peaceful coexistence, mutual respect and development.
Afghanistan–Pakistan relations refer to the bilateral ties between Afghanistan and Pakistan. In August 1947, the partition of British India led to the emergence of Pakistan along Afghanistan's eastern frontier, and the two countries have since had a strained relationship; Afghanistan was the sole country to vote against Pakistan's admission into the United Nations following the latter's independence. Territorial disputes along the widely known "Durand Line" and conflicting claims prevented the normalization of bilateral ties between the countries throughout the mid-20th century. Various Afghan government officials and Afghan nationalists have made irredentist claims to large swathes of Pakistan's territory in modern-day Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Pakistani Balochistan, which complete the traditional homeland of "Pashtunistan" for the Pashtun people. Afghan territorial claims over Pashtun-majority areas that are in Pakistan were coupled with discontent over the permanency of the Durand Line which has long been considered the international border by every nation other than Afghanistan, and for which Afghanistan demanded a renegotiation, with the aim of having it shifted eastward to the Indus River. During the Taliban insurgency, the Taliban has received substantial financial and logistical backing from Pakistan, which remains a significant source of support. Nonetheless, Pakistan's support for the Taliban is not without risks, as it involves playing a precarious and delicate game. Further Afghanistan–Pakistan tensions have arisen concerning a variety of issues, including the Afghan conflict and Afghan refugees in Pakistan, water-sharing rights, and a continuously warming relationship between Afghanistan and India, but most of all the Taliban government in Afghanistan providing sanctuary and safe havens to Pakistani Taliban terrorists to attack Pakistani territory. Border tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan have escalated to an unprecedented degree following recent instances of violence along the border. The Durand Line witnesses frequent occurrences of suicide bombings, airstrikes, or street battles on an almost daily basis. The Taliban-led Afghan government has also accused Pakistan of undermining relations between Afghanistan and China and creating discord between the neighbouring countries.
Relations between Afghanistan and Russia first emerged in the 19th century. At the time they were placed in the context of "The Great Game", Russian–British confrontations over Afghanistan from 1840 to 1907. The Soviet Union was the first country to establish diplomatic relations with Afghanistan following the Third Anglo-Afghan War in 1919. On 28 February 1921, Afghanistan and the Soviet Russia signed a Friendship Treaty. The Soviet Union intervened in Afghanistan against the Basmachi movement in 1929 and 1930.
Afghanistan–India relations are the diplomatic relations between India and Afghanistan. They had been historical neighbors when India was under colonial rule and have since shared cultural ties through Bollywood and cricket.
Austria–Chile relations are the bilateral relations between Austria and Chile. Both nations are members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the United Nations.
Russia–Zambia relations are the bilateral relations between Russia and Zambia.
Japan and Pakistan established bilateral relations on 28 April 1952. The Dominion of Pakistan had made significant efforts to lift the Allied occupation of Japan. During the Cold War, both countries were part of the Western Bloc. Pakistan played a major role in rebuilding the Japanese economy via mass exports and waiving war reparations owed to the country by Japan. Relations between Japan and Pakistan have generally remained stable, with the exception of the time period in which India and Pakistan were subject to Japanese sanctions due to their nuclear weapons tests in 1998. Relations have once again improved since then, with Pakistan receiving over ¥260 billion in grants and aid from Japan as well as around ¥3 billion in investments. As of 2022, there are 993 Japanese nationals residing in Pakistan whereas 22,118 Pakistani nationals are residing in Japan. About 20,000 Japanese tourists visited Pakistan between 2007-2008 and continue to express an interest in doing so, focusing on Pakistan's Buddhist sites. Pakistan is primarily represented through its embassy in Tokyo and Japan is represented through its embassy in Islamabad. As of 2015, bilateral trade between Japan and Pakistan stood at US$1.9 billion.
Diplomatic relations between Afghanistan and China were established in the 18th century, when Afghanistan was ruled by Ahmad Shah Durrani and China by Qianlong. But trade relations between these nations date back to at least the Han dynasty with the profitable Silk Road. Presently, China has an embassy in Kabul and Afghanistan has one in Beijing. The two countries share a 92 km (57 mi) border.
Bilateral relations of Afghanistan and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland span a long and eventful history, dating back to the United Kingdom's Company rule in India, the British-Russian rivalry in Central Asia, and the border between modern Afghanistan and British India. There has been an Afghan embassy in London since 1922 though there was no accredited Afghan ambassador from 1981 to 2001.
Annalena Charlotte Alma Baerbock is a German politician of the Alliance 90/The Greens party serving as Germany's minister for foreign affairs since 2021.
Afghanistan–France relations are the diplomatic relations between Afghanistan and France. Both nations are members of the United Nations.
Afghanistan–Italy relations are the diplomatic relations between Afghanistan and Italy which were formed in 1919. On June 3, 1921, they signed the agreement for the exchange of permanent Diplomatic mission and the centenary, on 2021, was celebrated with letters exchanged between their Chairs. Both nations are members of the United Nations but the new Taliban rulers of Afghanistan are not recognised as a valid government by them, or indeed any state so far.
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