Honourable nations do not leave close allies to persecution

The Morrison government should commit, unequivocally and straight away, to Australia maintaining a permanent embassy in Afghanistan.

Kabul is a dangerous city and it is perfectly OK for us to move our embassy inside an American compound. It’s nicer to be out on our own, but the safety of our diplomats, and our locally engaged staff, must be given a very high priority.

Everyone knows how close we are to the Americans. Co-locating with them doesn’t change anyone’s view of us, nor does it change any reality.

But to pull out the embassy altogether and operate it on a fly-in, fly-out basis from some other regional capital would be the most pathetic abdication of elementary solidarity with our Afghan allies.

It would mimic the instability of American policy in its worst caricatures.

I supported, on balance, the difficult American decision to withdraw its military from ­Afghanistan.

Naturally once the Americans withdrew, we had to withdraw our 80 soldiers involved mainly in training.

But that, according to the Americans and according to us, did not mean complete abandonment of our Afghan friends.

Otherwise, what did our soldiers die for?

If we pull out our embassy altogether, that is an overwhelming vote of no-confidence in the ­Afghan government.

It reduces Australian policy to incoherence: five minutes ago, our national interests and our values justified risking Australian lives and spending hundreds of millions dollars. Five minutes later, we’ve discovered that all those interests were worthless.

There is plenty for an embassy to do: co-operation on counter-terrorism and counter-narcotics; monitoring and supervising our aid budget; political and military reporting; regulating whatever two-way travel is necessary; and expressing political support for the Afghan nation.

We must also bring to Australia those Afghan personnel – a small number – who put their own security at risk by working intimately with our troops and diplomats as interpreters, fixers and in other capacities.

An honourable nation does not leave close allies to persecution by our enemies.

The Whitlam government – the most dishonourable gov­ernment Australia has ever had – did exact­ly this when it ­abandoned Saigon and refused to take our closest Vietnamese allies with it.

Such relocation to Australia is not possible right now because of Covid-19.

But one thing we can do is make it clear our embassy will remain in Afghanistan.

Honour may not count for much, but surely it’s something.