Afghanistan’s Taliban foreign minister meeting with Indian counterpart for first time since takeover

By AIJAZ HUSSAIN
Associated Press

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — The foreign minister of Taliban -ruled Afghanistan is set to meet with his Indian counterpart Friday, in a first high-level diplomatic engagement with New Delhi since the group seized power in 2021 after two decades of U.S. military presence.

Amir Khan Muttaqi, who is among multiple Afghan Taliban leaders under U.N. sanctions that include travel bans and asset freezes, arrived in New Delhi on Thursday after the U.N. Security Council Committee granted a temporary travel exemption to him. The visit comes after Muttaqi’s participation Tuesday at an international meeting on Afghanistan in Russia that included representatives from China, India, Pakistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Muttaqi’s India visit highlights the Taliban administration’s efforts to seek international recognition and underscores India’s strategic move to counter its regional rivals, Pakistan and China, who are deeply involved in Afghanistan.

Randhir Jaiswal, Indian’s foreign ministry spokesman, extended a welcome to Muttaqi in a post on X on Thursday and said: “We look forward to engaging discussions with him on bilateral relations and regional issues.”

India’s Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri met Muttaqi in Dubai in January. It was followed by telephone conversations between Muttaqi and Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, India’s foreign minister. India’s special envoy to Afghanistan visited Kabul in April to discuss political and trade relations.

Experts say India’s decision to engage with the Taliban at higher levels reflects its strategic reassessment, shaped in part by the consequences of previous non-engagement as well as to avoid falling behind its primary strategic rivals.

Praveen Donthi, senior analyst with the International Crisis Group, said Muttaqi’s visit marks India’s pragmatic engagement with the Taliban.

“New Delhi views the world through the prism of its rivalry with either China, Pakistan, or both. The Taliban’s efforts at a balanced foreign policy, which involves establishing relations with rival countries and groups, mirror New Delhi’s own playbook,” Donthi said.

The visit comes while Afghanistan’s ties with Pakistan are strained, especially over refugee deportations and border tensions, and India’s engagement is seen as a strategic counterbalance to Pakistan’s influence. India also aims to limit Chinese dominance in Afghanistan through infrastructure and diplomatic presence.

“With Beijing proactively engaging the Taliban, New Delhi wouldn’t want its primary strategic rival to hold exclusive influence over Kabul,” Donthi said. He said Pakistan had a similar hold over the Taliban in the past but due to its deteriorating ties with Islamabad, New Delhi sees an opportunity to “develop modest influence over Kabul and strengthen its position as a regional power.”

When the Taliban took over Kabul four years ago, Indian security analysts had feared that it would benefit their bitter rival Pakistan and feed a long-simmering insurgency in the disputed region of Kashmir, where militants already have a foothold.

But New Delhi maintained a steady contact with the Taliban despite these concerns and established a technical mission in Kabul in 2022, a year after the Taliban returned to power, focusing on humanitarian aid and development support. It continued engagement through backchannel diplomacy and regional forums that subsequently prompted increased engagement between the two countries this year.

India has long hosted tens of thousands of Afghan nationals, including students and businesspeople, many of whom fled the country after the Taliban rule. Afghanistan’s embassy in New Delhi shut down permanently in November 2023 but its consulates in Mumbai and Hyderabad continue to operate with limited services.

Gautam Mukhopadhaya, who was India’s ambassador in Kabul between 2010 to 2013, said the engagement between India and Afghanistan “may or may not lead to formal de jure recognition (of the Taliban government), although protocol gestures for the visit suggest the former.”

The Taliban has engaged in high-level talks with many nations and established some diplomatic ties with countries including China and the United Arab Emirates. In July, Russia became the first country to recognize the Taliban’s government after removing the group from its list of outlawed organizations.

Still, the Taliban government has been relatively isolated on the world stage, largely over its restrictions on women.

Mukhopadhaya said India should not take “that additional step to legitimize oppressive and unpopular Taliban rule internally” and “should preserve some levers to enable positive change internally for the benefit of all Afghans.”