– Without that platform, we would not have been able to get so many out in such a short time, says Jeppe Kofod.
– That’s why I’m here. And to personally thank the employees out at the airport who helped make it so successful.
The Taliban seized power in Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, on August 15. In the weeks leading up to and after, Denmark managed to evacuate around 1,000 people from the capital.
Among the evacuees were Danes and local employees who could potentially face dire consequences if it became known that they had worked for Denmark.
Although Pakistan assisted Denmark during the evacuation maneuver, the country is far from innocent in the more than two-decade-long saga of the Taliban in Afghanistan.
This is what Peter Viggo Jakobsen, who is an associate professor at the Defense Academy, says. According to him, it is Pakistan’s fault that Kabul fell.
“Had it not been for Pakistan, there would have been no Taliban,” he said in an interview with Weekendavisen on 16 September.
Jeppe Kofod acknowledges that serious words must be exchanged with the Pakistani government if one is to try to steer Afghanistan’s future in a positive direction.
– We have stood as a country that has – along with others of course – invested massively in the civilian reconstruction in Afghanistan. It has meant that children have come to school, that the standard of health has improved and that women have been given their freedom. All those things we are not going to drop on the floor.
– We want an honest dialogue about what Denmark stands for. We stand as a country that from the outset has taken the fight against terrorist groups in Afghanistan to remove the free space from Osama bin-Laden.
Question: But Pakistan knows those values well. The problem is that Pakistan has values that are more reminiscent of the Taliban than Denmark?
– Yes, but in the real world, you have to talk to those who have a key role to play in deciding which direction Afghanistan is going.
– If we did not do it, we would not have any opportunity to influence whether it goes in one direction or the other. For me, it is important that we get a stable Afghanistan – that it does not again become a free space for terror that can hit us, says Jeppe Kofod.
Source: The Nordic Page