In the three weeks since a health worker’s death in Siberia, officials have stonewalled the WHO – setting a worrying precedent for future pandemics
Is there a plague outbreak in Russia? If the answer were a clear yes, there shouldn’t be much reason to worry. With swift medical intervention, plague is treatable. But in the nearly three weeks since a worker at a Siberian plague research unit died of a mysterious respiratory illness, state officials have been consistently tight-lipped about what happened and whether there were any further cases.
It is this uncertainty that has the World Health Organization (WHO) and international community worried: partly because there is a – very small – risk of an outbreak, and partly because it is yet another warning that the international coordination we rely on to prevent pandemics is fraying along with the rest of international politics, and could easily fail to protect us in the future.
The French national debt is too big, its economy too sluggish and its parliament and president jointly unable to get state spending down to sustainable levels - the mirror image of the complaint of the protesters, who want more spending on subsidies and schools. And so it’s in gridlock
AS reports continue to do the rounds of possible Russian mediation to resolve the differences between Pakistan and Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, the Foreign Office has underscored that successful dialogue requires commitment from Kabul to end cross-border terrorism.
This demand is neither new nor unreasonable; it highlights the point that talks and support for anti-Pakistan terrorist groups cannot go hand in hand. On Friday, the FO said that while it was not aware of any formal Russian mediation initiative, Pakistan was open to engagement that produced tangible results. Representatives of Pakistan and the Taliban regime were both in Russia earlier this month as part of the Moscow Format regional consultations. A joint communique could not be issued at the conclave due to frosty Islamabad-Kabul ties, specifically because the Taliban objected to including any references to terrorism in Afghanistan. Russia had offered its good offices to resolve the impasse, if both sides required its help.
The official Taliban position amounts to a state of denial: it is hardly a secret that some of the world’s most dangerous terrorist groups find shelter in Afghanistan. Therefore, the Kabul regime’s denials hold no water. Many other third parties — Qatar, Turkiye, Saudi Arabia, and China — have tried to mediate between Pakistan and Afghanistan, with varying degrees of success. Russia is the only state that recognises the Taliban regime. Perhaps Moscow can be engaged by Pakistan and Afghanistan to try and give the peace process another chance.
Pakistan and Afghanistan share borders and linguistic and cultural links. Good relations are essential, even though bilateral relations have remained largely strained over the past several decades. However, the biggest obstacle to long-term peace is the Taliban’s sheltering of terrorist groups. Pakistan desires peace, but for talks to succeed, Kabul must offer visible CBMs, such as an end to cross-border terrorism. As the FO has said, a “verifiable mechanism” that ensures an end to anti-Pakistan terrorism emanating from Afghanistan can lead the way to peace. Kabul’s claims that it is not hosting violent groups are of little value.
Action against such groups is required, not hollow refutations. Moreover, regional states must realise that today it is Pakistan that is battling terrorist groups in Afghanistan. Tomorrow, similar violent actors based in that country can destabilise other regional states. Russia itself has been targeted by IS-K terrorism. The group finds a home in Afghanistan, even though it is at daggers drawn with the Taliban. If the Taliban regime commits to preventing groups based on its soil from attacking neighbouring states, the process of normalisation and regional integration of Afghanistan can begin.
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