The Director of the Mano Center for Research Initiatives Bakhtiyor Ergashev told how Uzbekistan can painlessly solve the problem of returning planes and helicopters to the Taliban.

"I believe that these several dozen aircraft and helicopters are not worth for Uzbekistan now going into conflict with world powers that are not interested in this aircraft falling into the hands of the Taliban," the expert noted.

Earlier the Acting Defense Minister of the Taliban government, Mawlawi Mohammad Yaqoob Mujahid demanded the return of military helicopters that were taken last August to Uzbekistan and Tajikistan and warned that if the countries do not return them, they will face consequences. 

In this case, according to the expert, a difficult decision will have to be made - not to hand over the equipment and to aggravate the situation with the Taliban, or to return the aircrafts that can be used tomorrow for uncertain purposes, and thereby complicate relations with world powers.

However, it should be noted that under the international law, the Taliban do not have sufficient legal grounds to demand the return these aircraft. According to existing standards, military equipment that ended up in a third country during the war must be interned (disarmed), and remain at the disposal of the third party. In this case, it is Uzbekistan.

Option one - to return the aircraft to the Taliban

"The issue is actually very complex and a solution that would suit all parties simply does not exist at the moment. The first option is that Uzbekistan transfers the aircraft to Afghanistan after negotiations with the Taliban government. But this will immediately cause very tough opposition from the United States and countries "Western coalition, and Russia and China may misunderstand this step. Therefore, this option has a lot of negative consequences, primarily for Uzbekistan, and whether our country needs it is a very big question," Ergashev said.

Option two - we do not hand over the aircraft to Afghanistan

What will happen if Uzbekistan does not return military equipment to Afghanistan? The expert believes that in this case, the country will get a serious deterioration in relations with the Taliban government, with which quite active negotiations are currently underway on the development of trade and economic cooperation.

"The parties are discussing joint implementation of major transport and infrastructure projects, in particular, the Mazar-i-Sharif-Kabul-Peshawar railway, the Surkhan-Puli-Khumri power transmission line projects from the Surkhandarya region to Afghanistan, and other projects are being worked out. All this could be suspended. Both Uzbekistan and Afghanistan will lose from this. Therefore, there is simply no such solution that suits all parties today," he emphasized.

Option three - to wait for the international recognition of the Taliban government

Bakhtiyor Ergashev believes that the only acceptable option for the near and medium term is to freeze this issue.

"This can be done under the flag that it is necessary to wait for the moment when the current Taliban government, which came to power in Afghanistan, is recognized by a significant part of the world community and then this aircraft can be returned to the Taliban," the expert said.

He added that now the Taliban government is likely to insist on its position, put forward ultimatums.