SRINAGAR, India — SRINAGAR, India (AP) — The overseas minister of Taliban -ruled Afghanistan is ready to satisfy together with his Indian counterpart Friday, in a primary high-level diplomatic engagement with New Delhi for the reason that group seized energy in 2021 after twenty years of U.S. army presence.
Amir Khan Muttaqi, who’s amongst a number of Afghan Taliban leaders beneath U.N. sanctions that embody journey bans and asset freezes, arrived in New Delhi on Thursday after the U.N. Safety Council Committee granted a brief journey exemption to him. The go to comes after Muttaqi’s participation Tuesday at a world assembly on Afghanistan in Russia that included representatives from China, India, Pakistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
Muttaqi’s India go to highlights the Taliban administration’s efforts to hunt worldwide recognition and underscores India’s strategic transfer to counter its regional rivals, Pakistan and China, who’re deeply concerned in Afghanistan.
Randhir Jaiswal, Indian’s overseas ministry spokesman, prolonged a welcome to Muttaqi in a put up on X on Thursday and stated: “We stay up for participating discussions with him on bilateral relations and regional points.”
India’s Overseas Secretary Vikram Misri met Muttaqi in Dubai in January. It was adopted by phone conversations between Muttaqi and Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, India’s overseas minister. India’s particular envoy to Afghanistan visited Kabul in April to debate political and commerce relations.
Consultants say India’s choice to have interaction with the Taliban at increased ranges displays its strategic reassessment, formed partly by the implications of earlier non-engagement in addition to to keep away from falling behind its major strategic rivals.
Praveen Donthi, senior analyst with the Worldwide Disaster Group, stated Muttaqi’s go to marks India’s pragmatic engagement with the Taliban.
“New Delhi views the world by way of the prism of its rivalry with both China, Pakistan, or each. The Taliban’s efforts at a balanced overseas coverage, which includes establishing relations with rival international locations and teams, mirror New Delhi’s personal playbook,” Donthi stated.
The go to comes whereas Afghanistan’s ties with Pakistan are strained, particularly over refugee deportations and border tensions, and India’s engagement is seen as a strategic counterbalance to Pakistan’s affect. India additionally goals to restrict Chinese language dominance in Afghanistan by way of infrastructure and diplomatic presence.
“With Beijing proactively participating the Taliban, New Delhi wouldn’t need its major strategic rival to carry unique affect over Kabul,” Donthi stated. He stated Pakistan had an identical maintain over the Taliban previously however because of its deteriorating ties with Islamabad, New Delhi sees a chance to “develop modest affect over Kabul and strengthen its place as a regional energy.”
When the Taliban took over Kabul 4 years in the past, Indian safety analysts had feared that it could profit their bitter rival Pakistan and feed a long-simmering insurgency within the disputed area of Kashmir, the place militants have already got a foothold.
However New Delhi maintained a gradual contact with the Taliban regardless of these considerations and established a technical mission in Kabul in 2022, a 12 months after the Taliban returned to energy, specializing in humanitarian help and improvement assist. It continued engagement by way of backchannel diplomacy and regional boards that subsequently prompted elevated engagement between the 2 international locations this 12 months.
India has lengthy hosted tens of 1000’s of Afghan nationals, together with college students and businesspeople, a lot of whom fled the nation after the Taliban rule. Afghanistan’s embassy in New Delhi shut down completely in November 2023 however its consulates in Mumbai and Hyderabad proceed to function with restricted companies.
Gautam Mukhopadhaya, who was India’s ambassador in Kabul between 2010 to 2013, stated the engagement between India and Afghanistan “could or could not result in formal de jure recognition (of the Taliban authorities), though protocol gestures for the go to recommend the previous.”
The Taliban has engaged in high-level talks with many countries and established some diplomatic ties with international locations together with China and the United Arab Emirates. In July, Russia turned the primary nation to acknowledge the Taliban’s authorities after eradicating the group from its checklist of outlawed organizations.
Nonetheless, the Taliban authorities has been comparatively remoted on the world stage, largely over its restrictions on girls.
Mukhopadhaya stated India mustn’t take “that further step to legitimize oppressive and unpopular Taliban rule internally” and “ought to protect some levers to allow optimistic change internally for the advantage of all Afghans.”
