BERLIN, July 18. /TASS/. A diplomatic recognition by the German government of the Taliban movement as the governing authority in Afghanistan is out of the question, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Friday.

For the first time since coming to power on May 6 this year, the German government led by Merz deported from Germany to Afghanistan a large group of migrants previously registered as dangerous criminals.

At a grand news conference in Berlin, Chancellor Merz dismissed suggestions that the German authorities were preparing to officially recognize the Taliban.

"Diplomatic recognition of the Taliban regime is not even being discussed," Merz said. "This would never happen."

However, the German chancellor added that there were only so-called "technical contacts" with Qatar underway regarding the preparations for deportations.

Merz also said that negotiations regarding the recent deportation flight’s organization had been held for many weeks by several departments on behalf of his country’s government.

Germany, according to Merz, does not recognize the de facto government of Afghanistan but has never severed diplomatic ties with that country. He pointed out that since diplomatic relations are still in force between the countries, but not between their governments, it was possible to organize negotiations and the main focus so far would remain at the technical level.

Earlier in the day, Germany deported 81 Afghani refugees, previously found guilty of dangerous crimes, back to their home country. The Qatar Airways charter flight took off for Kabul from Leipzig Airport at approximately 8:35 a.m. local time (9:35 a.m. Moscow time).

On board the Airbus A330-200 (QR7431) aircraft were Afghans who had been found guilty of committing various degree offenses and had been brought to Leipzig from different federal states of Germany. Each of them received 1,000 euros before the flight took off in order to pay for their initial costs upon their return to Afghanistan.

According to the German Central Register of Foreigners (AZR), which is a nationwide database that stores information about foreign nationals residing in Germany, as of June 30, there were 11,172 Afghan citizens registered in Germany who were obliged to leave the country, including 9,462 with a temporary suspension of the ordered deportation and 1,710 who did not have the permit to delay their scheduled deportation.

Germany decided to ban deportations of Afghani nationals to their country in 2021, when the Taliban movement assumed power in the country. The ban on deportation was in force for almost three years.

However, in mid-2024, then-Interior Minister Nancy Feather (SPD) reversed this decision under strong pressure from the CDU/CSU bloc. On August 30, 2024, a Qatar Airways charter flight delivered back to their country 28 Afghan nationals who had been found guilty of previously committed offenses.