Key Points
- An Afghan Taliban delegation met EU officials in Brussels on Tuesday for the first time, an event rights groups denounced as legitimising the Islamists but the EU has defended as a step towards making it easier to repatriate failed asylum seekers. S1
- The EU is hosting Taliban officials after Belgium granted temporary visas for talks on returning failed Afghan asylum-seekers. The meeting is one of the bloc's highest-level contacts with the Taliban since 2021. S2
Related live story