Indian delegation in Afghanistan

While the Taliban are considered more amiable to Pakistani establishment, there have been significant recent hiccups

India appears to be making efforts to improve ties with the Taliban-run Afghanistan, sending a delegation led by the external affairs ministry’s joint secretary in charge of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran to Kabul earlier this week. Joint Secretary JP Singh is the highest-ranking official to visit Kabul since the city fell to Taliban in August last year, and India pulled out all its diplomatic staff. While India never completely severed ties and maintained a minimal relationship since then through the provision of food and other humanitarian aid, the visit is still proof of how much PM Narendra Modi underestimated the Taliban. Days after the fall of Kabul, Modi had cast doubt on the ability of the Taliban to maintain power. Today, it is clear he has accepted that, while the Taliban government still lacks formal international recognition, its de facto power is unchallenged.

The significance of the visit is not lost on the world. The Ministry of External Affairs had to deny that the visit equates to official recognition of the Taliban regime, but the fact that it was led by the top bureaucrat for the region — the JS reports to the foreign secretary — would suggest otherwise. The Afghan statement relating to the visit also suggested that the meeting went beyond humanitarian concerns and into areas such as trade and diplomatic relations, both of which require recognition of the regime. The fact is that India has significant legitimate and ulterior motives for having good ties with Afghanistan; it is a nearby regional country, separated only by the disputed Kashmir region, has great mineral wealth, and, if relations with Pakistan and China were to improve, a strategic trade location. On the other hand, it is also the safe haven for most terrorist groups operating against Pakistan, and under the US-backed, anti-Pakistan and India-friendly Afghan governments of the past, New Delhi allegedly had free reign to arm and finance them.

And while the Taliban are considered more amiable to the Pakistani establishment, there have been significant recent hiccups during discussions over certain issues in the recent past, most significantly over the Taliban’s failure to clamp down on those same terrorist outfits. If these divisions are what prompted India to change tack, we should all be concerned.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 5^th, 2022.

Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.