Led by joint secretary JP Singh, an Indian delegation team, met the Taliban recently in Kabul. This is the first official step in redeveloping the ties with Afghanistan since the Taliban taken over the country in August 2021.
The delegation team’s goal is to oversee humanitarian relief efforts and projects with Indian ties, even though India has a distressed relationship with the Taliban regime. Since the elected Ashraf Ghani government collapsed in the Taliban uprising, the most of those projects came to a standstill.
India, like many other countries, has not recognized the Taliban regime officially in Afghanistan. During the war, India had closed its diplomatic presence in the country, after evacuating many Indian nationals. However, that did not stop the backdoor contacts through various channels and meetings with the Taliban representatives and the Indian government in third country, Qatar.
As the outcome of the civil war, Afghanistan is now struggling with basic needs and external supports are quite welcome. Historically, India had a close connection with Afghanistan, hence Indian guidance is expected to Afghanistan now.
Following the US presence in Afghanistan, India came forward as the largest regional donor for the country. India has completed and participated in various infrastructure projects in Afghanistan. It includes the new parliament building, the Friendship Dam and several highway projects. However, everything stopped operating after August 2021 following the Taliban takeover.
The Indian Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Arindam Bagchi stated that the Indian team was to hold meetings with the senior members of the Taliban and discuss India’s humanitarian assistance to the country. However, he did not disclose the detail about the team composition, trip duration,scheduled places to be visitedand so on. It was only stated that the team would try to visit several places where India-assisted projects were going on.
Amir Khan Mottaki, the Taliban representative who met the Indian delegation team, expressed positive wishes for resuming diplomatic relationship. The Taliban, in their stance, wants India to resume the stalled projects across the country. They also want India to offer consular services to Afghans, especially, to the students and patients, who need to travel to India often.
With the regime change, the India-Afghanistan tie became erratic, but India can never afford to lose another ally, especially during the troubles from Pakistan and China along with north-western and northern borders. Hence, India is extending a supportive approach albeit it doesn’thave direct connection with the Taliban.
Even though there was no prior official intimation of the visit, the redevelopment of the relationship was for quite some time now. There were open channels of communication between top Taliban leaders like Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai and Abdul Ghani Baradar in third countries. India’s ambassador to Qatar, Deepak Mittal met Stanekzai in Doha, in September, for the first time.
India has sent shipments of humanitarian aid, consisting of 20,000 tonnes of wheat, 5 lakh doses of Covid vaccine, 13 tonnes of medicine and winter clothing. For the refugees, India has gifted Iran one million doses of the India-made Covid vaccine, along with 60 million doses of polio vaccine. In the 2022-23 budget, India has allotted INR 200 crores for Afghanistan.
India’s approach and aids have widespread appreciation in Afghanistan already. Even the top-tier Taliban leaders can understand the importance of maintaining a steady relationship with India, which will come in handy in running a country to stability. As India has already extended their friendship towards the war-torn country, it’s yet to be seen if India can find a trust-worthy ally in Afghanistan or not.
