 The Taliban has complete control over Afghanistan. While experts have been predicting this for quite a while, many even calling it inevitable, the speed at which the Taliban took over has surprised one and all. Now there are hundreds of questions about the future of Afghan society, about what role countries in the region will play, what role, if any at all, U.S. and the western powers have. We'll be talking about these questions in this episode of Mapping Fault Lines. We are joined by Prabir Prakash. Prabir from last week, when we talked about the situation in Afghanistan that the Taliban was at the gates of Kabul and within a few days, they've basically taken over the whole country except for maybe a small bit of land in the Panjshir Valley. Ashraf Ghani has fed the country. There are discussions on who will form the next government, what will be the judicial system, what will be the role of women, media, etc. So tons of questions, of course. But I think for our viewers, the most important thing might be what the Taliban is saying right now in terms of what it will do and what is likely to be its policy in the coming days. That's a big question. And I don't think anybody has an answer to that question. But I think immediate target for Taliban and of course we can't put ourselves in their shoes. But if you are in Taliban shoes for a moment, you think the main issue is how to stabilize the country as a whole. And that's the key issue at the moment for them. And how do you make the economy function? Because it has now no money. The Americans, the IMF has seized whatever money they had. The IMF is not giving it any money, whatever it's supposed to give also. So given all of this, that they are in a situation where if they have to import the next week's ration, so to say, how do they do it? So I think that's where the need international legitimacy. And therefore they're willing to talk to other forces in Afghanistan, particularly people like Karzai, Abdullah Abdullah, who have been a part of the government, which was backed by the United States at one point of time. All the changes Taliban is showing in terms of negotiations with these parties seem to indicate they want an interim government, which should have some legitimacy and not only Taliban government. Of course, they hold the whip hand because they militarily control the country. So that is very much there. The second question is what will be the relationship with the surrounding countries? And they have said to one statement, which I think is very important for the rest of the world, that they will not allow their country to be used against any other country. So therefore, the signal is no al-Qaeda-like forays, whether it's 9-11 or into other countries, and also a signal that as far as Pakistan is concerned, they will not support any forays into Pakistan either. Question mark, what is the Harika Taliban? Is it a part of Taliban? Is it an independent entity? Those questions remain to be answered. But it's also true that they seem to be making efforts to also sound softer. How real it is, we don't know. But they're talking about women, talking about press freedoms, all of this is there. But of course, they've also kept various, shall we say, riders to this question by talking of the Sharia law and so on. But that's something which a number of Islamic countries have done. So we'll have to see from Saudi Arabia to United Arab Emirates to Iran, the different countries have different versions of this. So I don't think that's a monolithic position at this point. But yes, lots of questions. But it does seem that at least some lessons Taliban has learned. A, to sit down at the other sections and try to build a coalition government, even if they hold the whip hand. And the second is at least giving signals no other country will be in danger by forces in Pakistan, in Afghanistan. And that should give some solace to Iran, to the various stance which are in that part of the world, which have neighboring boundaries, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and also China. So I think those are things that are to be taken into consideration. But beyond that at the moment, has the leopard changed spots? Open question. Absolutely. You mentioned the economic crisis, which is interesting because there are reports that the economy survives because cash used to be sent to Afghanistan every week. And now that many of these supplies have closed, it's a really big question how the most basic thing that is the economy is going to function. But talking about the United States and the West, there's been of course a lot of hand wringing and shock in the West in the media. A lot of attempts at self-reflection and talk about how they failed the Afghans and all which ignores their inglorious history over the past many decades. But I think the key question right now is that will the US and the Western powers say United Kingdom, Germany, do you see them actually having at this point any kind of say or a role in how the situation in Afghanistan develops? Plotlessly put, they don't have a role at the moment because none of the countries in its surrounding area are going to play a ball with them. The only possibility was Pakistan. I don't think even they are willing now to be a front for NATO anymore on this. They have their independence stake. They're also worried about the possible influence it might have in Pakistan, particularly Taliban. The Talibanization of Pakistan is not something they would also desire. So I think it's an open question that what Pakistan may or may not do. But I don't think there is any other country in that region which is going to play ball with the NATO, giving them a toe hold. The US tried to do this with their Quad 2 proposal where they wanted to get Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Pakistan and the United States have some role over there. There is a possibility of trying to use Turkey for this. Turkey wants to play the independent hand. It's very clear. So given all of this, I don't see NATO being able to play much of a role here. And when you ask that question, we should also be very clear that the invasion of Afghanistan was partly to make George Bush a war hero at a very low cost. That's what he thought. He didn't think it will go on for 20 years. They won victory in 2025 days. If you remember against Iraq, also he had proclaimed victory in a couple of weeks. So given that, the fact that these wars have lasted so long, we should also think why was it that the United States and NATO was in Afghanistan. And if you look at the long, what is called the great game in Central Asia, I think it was entry for United States into Central Asia. And that is where they have lost out because they don't have at the moment any access to Central Asia very easily. Iran on one side, Russia on another side, China on the other side, Afghanistan now. So I think it's very difficult for them to find an easy gateway into this area. And I think that's the biggest strategic change that has taken place for NATO and the United States. So I don't think Afghanistan should be seen only in the prism of Afghanistan. I think you have to take this larger picture to account. So Praveen, one of the things I think we've often talked about on this show is that how over the years we've seen many of these conflict zones, the solutions have finally returned to the region itself, all these countries which basically might have issues with each other, nonetheless cooperating to try to sort of bring some kind of stability. So could you maybe take us through the region that we're seeing right now and especially talk about Russia and China and the kind of stakes they have and why, what kind of involvement they have and why do they have that? You know, it's a very interesting question you raise because Central Asia is somehow forgotten in the world map. It is taken for granted. There are some stands over there, but Afghanistan is in the picture, Iran is in the picture, of course, China is in the picture. So Russia, we tend to forget about this region unless there is a war somewhere over there. So if you come to this region now, you will see it's a large region. It has Kazakhstan, which is pretty large. It has, of course, Iran on one side, it has China on the other side and Russia on top, which you don't see over here in this map, but all this entire arc, this entire arc that you see, that is a very interesting set of countries which will get now drawn into larger global economic network. And that is because it's basically where the belt road initiative is to go to pass through. So it's going to link on one side with Europe, the other side to link with China. It will also link with Iran and it will also link with Russia. So this is the big picture that we have over here. And what you said is absolutely true. These countries now have a stake in the whole region and it is for them to really resolve the problems of each other in a cooperative basis because one of the things of land routes are if one country disrupts it, then the whole land route gets disrupted. So the cooperative nature of the land train is different from the sea train, which is one to one. You go from one port to another, there's no other country in between. So I think this cooperative nature of Central Asia, old Silk Route, if it returns in this form and it links different economies together, I think it might change the whole region and therefore it might set in motion forces. We're not foreseeing today. Similarly, if we were talking about this next region, which is West Asia, which is not here, and you will see now Iran and South East have started talking to each other. If we can see a return of politics returning to the regions and not to a large island in the Pacific Atlantic, which is the United States of America, which seems to want to control the whole land mass around the globe. I think this will be a huge change and let's face it, NATO looks at Atlantic. So it's a transatlantic alliance and what we're looking at is really rest of the world and that is the Eurasian land mass and of course Africa. And I think this return of what you said cooperative politics taking place at the regional level is very important for Afghanistan because it needs every surrounding country including India to be able to bring peace back to Afghanistan. If anybody plays the spoiler, it might quell the pitch for everybody else and for themselves as well. This is what Pakistan should have learned from the experience earlier and hopefully others will as well including India. Absolutely. Thank you so much for talking to us. That's all we have time for today. Keep watching NewsClick.