Afghanistan Ambassador to China Quits, No Salary for Months
NEW DELHI, Jan 10: Afghanistan’s ambassador to China quit his post and has virtually closed down the embassy except for a lone local recruit to answer the phones. The action taken, as he explained, not for any diplomatic reasons but because he and the staff have not been paid their salaries by the cash-starved Taliban government in Kabul for months.
Javid Ahmad Qaem has left behind resignation note for his post-Taliban takeover successor on Monday and took to Twitter to detail how he had to scrape cash from the embassy’s bank account to pay staff after the Taliban seized Afghanistan last August.
“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,” Qaem wrote in a letter to Afghanistan’s foreign ministry dated January 1 but posted to social media on Monday. Still, he left some funds for his successor. “As of today, 1st January 2022, there is around $100,000 left in the account.” He did not say where he was going next.
In a portrait of a barely functioning embassy, Qaem’s letter revealed he had left the keys for the embassy’s five cars in his office and that a lone local hire had been assigned to answer queries after all the other diplomats left. Many of Afghanistan’s embassies are in diplomatic limbo, run by staff still loyal to the Western-backed government toppled by the Taliban.
Several Afghan diplomats have abandoned their Beijing postings since the fall of Kabul, Qaem wrote, calling his resignation “the end to an honourable responsibility” in an accompanying Tweet. “I believe when the new person assigned arrives to Beijing, there will be no other diplomat left,” the letter said, adding that China had been “well-informed” about the development.
The Afghan embassy in Beijing appeared open as usual on Monday afternoon, with the internationally recognised Afghan tricolour raised and two security guards outside.
Qaem, who has served as ambassador since November 2019, had expressed concerns about the Taliban in media interviews shortly after China hosted a visiting delegation in July. Weeks later, the Taliban captured Kabul and formed a new Islamist government. Since then, Afghanistan has been plunged into financial chaos, with inflation and unemployment surging.
China has provided millions to Afghanistan in aid since the takeover and the new regime sees Beijing as a crucial source of investment. The Taliban have not appointed new representatives to most missions, however, and their government is not recognised by any nation.
(Manas Dasgupta)
