Running out of time

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Ever since the U.S. withdrew swiftly from Kabul in late August, the world hasn't been sure what to do about Afghanistan. Now with the economy collapsing, it's time for some tough decisions. Italy is convening a virtual Group of 20 summit today to talk about how the world's biggest economies can help stabilize the country before it turns into an even bigger humanitarian disaster. The prospects for the meeting aren't great. Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russia's Vladimir Putin — whose governments have regularly engaged the Taliban militant group now running Afghanistan — aren't even dialing in. The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden isn't keen to hand over money to the Taliban after getting hammered politically over the pullout. Still, a failure to act could be devastating. While Afghanistan isn't seeing a mass exodus yet, the United Nations last month warned that nearly the entire population could fall into poverty in the worst-case scenario. That could bolster extremist groups and send people fleeing to neighboring countries and even further afield to Europe. The question now is how the U.S. and its allies can get cash into Afghanistan quickly without appearing to reward the Taliban for its treatment of women and other abuses. As much as they might cringe at helping out their former enemies, an unstable Afghanistan teeming with desperation would be even worse. — Daniel Ten Kate

Taliban members stop people from crossing into Pakistan on Sept. 25. Photographer: Bulent Kilic/AFP/Getty Images Click here to follow Bloomberg Politics on Twitter and tell us how we're doing or what we're missing at balancepower@bloomberg.net.

Global Headlines

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