Beset by financial woes, Afghan embassies struggle in limbo

After months of holding the keys to the embassy in Beijing, Afghanistan's ambassador to China, Javid Ahmad Qaem, has finally packed his suitcases and closed the embassy.

Qaem went to Twitter, citing the dwindling level of funds experienced by the mission as the reason for the embassy's closure.

"Since we did not receive salaries from Kabul for the last six months, we assigned a committee from within the diplomats to solve the financial issues," he said in a letter published in English.

Since the fall of the US-backed Afghan government led by the former President Ashraf Ghani in August - the country is now controlled by the Taliban, who have renamed the state as the Islamic Emirates of Afghanistan (IEA).

International recognition of the IEA has been slow, leaving the country's embassies around the world in limbo.

Qaem's resignation in China also paints a bleak picture of the state of embassies and their workforce.

One interesting note in the letter that Qaem left behind says that the keys of the embassy were given to the Qatari embassy in Beijing, potentially a precursor to those keys being given to current authorities in Kabul.

Qatar, for its part, has very close contacts with the IEA, after it hosted the Taliban offices in Doha and where peace negotiations were held with US counterparts leading to the withdrawal of American forces.

There are rumours that regional countries are tepidly moving towards some form of recognition with the IEA authorities in Kabul to stabilise the economic and security situation on the ground.

One Afghan diplomat that TRT World spoke with and who wished to remain anonymous was seemingly unaware of the closure of the Chinese embassy.

"After the fall of Kabul, every mission worked independently, and we lost official contacts with other missions, so right now, we don't know what problems may have caused our embassy in China to come to this conclusion," said the diplomat.

When TRT World asked whether regional countries like Iran, China, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Pakistan, Kazakhstan could be moving to low-key recognition of the IEA, the official was quick to deny the reports.

"These missions which you talked about are still active, and few of them are controlled by the first secretary of that mission right now, and until the new government is officially recognised, there won't be any changes," they said. But the picture on the ground is far from clear.

Making matters worse for many missions around that still represent the former government is the question of legitimacy, who do these missions represent now?

"Yes, we are still representing the old government until the Taliban led government is officially recognised," said the diplomat speaking to TRT World.

Yet there is no current foreign minister in exile from the previous government or, for that matter, any cabinet in exile to which these embassies answer to.

An additional oddity of the current situation is that Afghan embassies, which on paper answer to the Afghan Foreign Ministry currently led by Amir Khan Muttaqi, are waiting for the international community to recognise the new state before they do.

In a sign that diplomatic recognition is in the offing, an IEA delegation led by Muttaqi was greeted in Iran by their counterparts led by Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian.

Tehran cited the current deteriorating humanitarian situation in the country for the meeting rather than a formal diplomatic recognition. But the high-level meetings between Afghan authorities and other regional countries who want to ensure stability in the country will drive the need for some form of recognition albeit a defacto one.

For the time being, however, the worsening financial situation amongst embassies may ultimately result in those that refuse to recognise the new government in Kabul to hand back the keys.

"Most of our missions are not able to cover their expenses," says the Afghan diplomat in one of the few holdout embassies.

"A lack of cooperation from host countries in some matters coupled with a lack of certainty in our security and what might happen to us if the new government is officially recognised," plague staff and missions around the world, added the diplomat.