Boris Johnson pushes PM on Afghan refugees, net zero commitment

In phone call to Canberra, UK PM urges Scott Morrison over Afghan refugee resettlement and more ambitious carbon commitments.

Boris Johnson has urged Scott Morrison to step up on carbon emissions and over resettlement of Afghan refugees. Picture: AFP.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Scott Morrison have agreed to continue to work together to evacuate nationals and former employees from Afghanistan.

The UK helped evacuate 76 Australians on an RAF flight that left Kabul on Wednesday.

But Mr Johnson also used a Thursday phone call to Canberra to press Mr Morrison for a concerted international effort to prevent a humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, arguing for an increase in aid to the region and resettling of refugees.

The UK has committed to an extra allocation of 20,000 refugees from Afghanistan, including 5000 in the coming months.

During the short phone call, Mr Johnson also argued for Australia to set ambitious targets to reach net zero on carbon emissions and increase climate financing, ahead of the UK’s hosting of the COP 26 environmental conference in Glasgow later this year.

Downing Street said: “The (UK) prime minister underlined the importance of global action on climate change.’’

Meanwhile foreign ministers from G7 countries have called for a “united international response” from G20 countries including Australia, as well as the UN Security Council, international donors and Afghanistan’s regional neighbours to intensively engage on critical questions facing Afghanistan and the region.

Members of the British Army board a RAF Airbus en route to Afghanistan. Picture: AFP.

Ministers on the phone hook up meeting of the G7 foreign ministers on Thursday, chaired by the UK foreign minister Dominic Raab, spoke about the “gravity of the situation and the significant loss of life and internal displacement in Afghanistan over recent days”.

Mr Raab said that the G7 Ministers supported the statement of the UN Security Council on 16 August, and affirmed a commitment in particular to the urgent need for the cessation of violence, respect for human rights including for women, children and minorities, inclusive negotiations about the future of Afghanistan, and the need for all parties to respect international humanitarian law, in particular in relation to humanitarian and medical personnel, interpreters and other international service providers.

The security council statement called for an immediate halt to violence, restoration of security, civil and constitutional order, and urgent talks to resolve the current crisis of authority in the country and to arrive at a peaceful settlement through an Afghan-led, Afghan-owned process of national reconciliation.

Mr Raab is fighting off criticism of being on a luxury Crete holiday – absent against the advice of his department – and failing to make an important phone call to his Afghanistan counterpart last Friday to allow local Afghan embassy workers to be ferried out of the country to the UK without visas or passports in the hours before Kabul fell on Sunday.

The G7 meeting expressed particular concern to the ministers over Taliban reprisals, stating it was holding the Taliban to their commitments to protect civilians. In the official communique from the meeting the G7 said it was “deeply concerned by reports of violent reprisals in parts of Afghanistan’’.

It added: “The G7 are continuing efforts to do everything possible to evacuate vulnerable persons from Kabul airport and call on all parties to continue to facilitate that. The G7 Ministers called for the Taliban to guarantee safe passage to foreign nationals and Afghans wanting to leave. G7 ministers also discussed the importance of close and effective co-operation among us in order to allow evacuations from Kabul. G7 Ministers discussed the importance of the international community providing safe and legal resettlement routes. They concurred that the Taliban must ensure that Afghanistan does not become host to a terrorist threat to international security.”

The G7 ministers will each engage with various partners in the coming days and weeks to secure an inclusive political settlement, enable life saving humanitarian assistance and support in Afghanistan and the region and prevent further loss of life in the country and to the international community from terrorism.