The Indian delegation recently met the Interim Taliban Government of Afghanistan. India has described this meeting as a humanitarian aid. India is taking steps to restore relations with Afghanistan. The Taliban government wants defense and diplomatic relations to be restored as before. Military training of Afghan recruits should be started in India. India’s financial help should be restored in its projects, health services. The Indian government is not in a hurry. The reason is simple. Taliban’s relations with Pakistan, West Asian diplomacy and the situation in Kashmir. Unless the Government of India is convinced by the Taliban leadership on these three issues, no concrete decision will come out.
contact restoration equations
India has reached Afghanistan for the first time after the capture of Taliban. Last week, a delegation from India led by senior diplomat JP Singh reached Afghanistan. In Kabul, he met Taliban leaders. The Indian delegation also met Amir Khan Muttaki, Foreign Minister of the Interim Government of Afghanistan and saw the ongoing Indian projects in Afghanistan. In fact, India has been in touch with the Taliban from behind the scenes before they took over. Now India is directly entering Afghanistan. Actually, China and Pakistan are also engaged in making their hold in Afghanistan.
Recently, when the Indian delegation met with Taliban leaders, on the same day Chinese Ambassador Ding Yinan also met the Taliban’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sher Mohammad Abbas. If China and Pakistan become closer to the Taliban, then it will be a big loss for India. Pakistan can increase terrorism in India through Taliban, while China can harm India on the economic front. India’s experience with the old Taliban has not been good, but the new Taliban has been consistently saying that it will not allow its ground to be used against India. Along with this, the Taliban has said that it will not support Kashmir Jihad.
What does Taliban want?
After the return of the Indian delegation, Taliban Defense Minister Mullah Yakub said he had no problem in restoring defense ties with India, but stressed that diplomatic relations between the two governments should be restored first. If relations between the two governments return to normal, the Taliban is ready to send Afghan security forces to India for training. Mullah Yakub has also demanded the Indian government to reopen its embassy in Kabul and allow the Taliban ambassador to take over the Afghan embassy in New Delhi. The Defense Minister said that the Taliban is ready to give any security guarantee if India sends its diplomatic staff back to Afghanistan.
India’s concern and Taliban
Mullah Yakub assured the Indian team that the Taliban government would not allow Pakistan or India to use Afghanistan’s land against each other and hoped that the two countries would resolve their differences through dialogue and dialogue. will do. According to the Taliban’s defense minister, they have no links to al-Qaeda and that the terrorist organization and the so-called Islamic State have been crushed in Afghanistan. However, India has concerns about the influence of Pakistani intelligence agencies and extremist groups on the Taliban. After the visit of diplomat JP Singh, the Taliban’s foreign ministry said in a statement that Indian officials have told him that they want good relations with Afghanistan as before and will continue their assistance. In fact, ever since the Taliban came to power, Pakistan’s intelligence agency was planning to end India’s interference in Afghanistan. The Indian delegation’s visit to Afghanistan has dealt a serious blow to its plans. What are the economic equations
The economy of Afghanistan is passing through a very critical phase these days. Unemployment and poverty are increasing. Economists have warned that if concrete steps are not taken in time, Afghanistan’s economy will sink into the abyss. The economy has declined sharply since the Taliban takeover in August last year. After the arrival of Taliban, India stopped all its missions. Trade with India came to a complete standstill. While Afghanistan has always been a source of Indian sugar, India is one of the largest importers of Afghan spices and dried fruits, especially apricots and figs.
what the experts say
In the year 2019-2020, there was a trade of $ 1.5 billion between the two countries, but in the financial year 2021-22, the trade declined by 40 percent. I hope that the visit of Indian diplomats will pave the way for India’s permanent presence in Kabul at the appropriate level. India will have to take steps keeping in mind the activities of China and Pakistan. Taliban wants the world to recognize them and India can play an important role in this.
Vivek Katju, former Ambassador of India to Afghanistan
Indian exporters continue to send their goods by sea to Karachi port and from there by road to Afghanistan. Trade resumed a month after Taliban’s arrival and now India is exporting 60,000 tonnes of sugar every month.
Rakesh Sood, former Ambassador of India to Afghanistan