A senior Indian diplomat has met with ‘Afghan authorities’ in Kabul, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) confirmed on Friday. The development came months after the embassy of Afghanistan here that was earlier run by officials with affiliation to the pre-Taliban government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan was shut down and the consular responsibilities were taken over by Afghan officials who are considered to be pro-Taliban.
“An Indian delegation led by Joint Secretary (PAI), Ministry of External Affairs is on a visit to Afghanistan…During the visit, the delegation held meetings with senior members of the Afghan authorities. The delegation held discussions on India’s humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan and also discussed use of Chabahar port by Afghan traders,” said MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal. J.P. Singh, the official in-charge of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran — PAI-related issues, met Taliban’s foreign affairs in charge Amir Khan Muttaqi on Thursday.
Mr. Singh had visited Kabul in 2022 as India had begun making the first moves to reconnect with Afghanistan, after the violent overthrow of the Ashraf Ghani government in August 2021. That visit was followed by renewed delivery of humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan. On Thursday, Taliban’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Abdul Qahar Balkhi was the first to announce that Mr. Singh had met with the ‘foreign minister’ of the Taliban set-up.
“Mr. Muttaqi also expressed gratitude for the recent Indian humanitarian and medical assistance to Afghanistan, stressing the resumption of projects by India, their diplomatic presence in Afghanisstan and the provision of consular services to Afghans, particularly to Afghan students and patients,” Mr. Balkhi had stated in a social media post that was accompanied with a photograph showing Mr. Singh with Mr. Muttaqi.
Marked by ambiguity
The present shape of relations between India and Afghanistan is marked by ambiguity as India maintains a technical team in the Indian embassy in Kabul and the Afghan embassy in New Delhi and the consulates in Mumbai and Hyderabad are functioning under officials who adhere to “Afghan people” without expressly propagating the cause of the Taliban and its brand of politics. India has been critical of Taliban’s human rights record and has been calling upon the grouping to restore education for young girls and women in Afghanistan.
Officials here have been arguing that the consular relation needs to be maintained to avoid a humanitarian crisis as many Afghan students, patients, refugees and businesspersons frequent India and a total snapping of relations would have hurt these vulnerable communities. Mr. Singh also met former President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai, one of the few politicians with links to the previous regimes, officials from the UNAMA (United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan), as well as members of the Afghan business community. Taliban’s relation in recent months with eastern neighbour Pakistan has nosedived because of terror strikes from Afghan soil that are reportedly targeting Pakistani facilities. That apart, Sher Mohammed Stanekzai, Taliban’s ‘deputy foreign minister’, has also been in news for his comments asserting Afghan rights over Pakistan’s northwest frontier. These verbal skirmishes, coupled with Pakistan’s current problems with Iran which is the host country of the Chabahar port, has opened a strategic window for India as far as the Taliban is concerned. Officials are noncommittal about the scope of the emerging interaction with Taliban but have indicated that India is trying to ‘safeguard’ its interests, especially in the domain of strategic concerns like counter-terrorism and infrastructure projects that remain incomplete on the ground of Afghanistan.
