/wion/media/agency_attachments/2024/12/26/2024-12-26t112006978z-wion-white-logo-for-website-2-1.png){kind=logo}
/wion/media/agency_attachments/2024/12/13/2024-12-13t071548098z-wionlogo.webp)
/wion/media/member_avatars/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/2018/09/10/4104-Siddhant-Sibal.png)
/wion/media/media_files/2025/01/08/YMGEBJVy8yfUvdUj173J.jpg)
New Delhi: The Indian government and Taliban have upped the engagement after a key meeting between Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri and Acting Afghan Foreign Minister Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi in Dubai. This is the highest-level India-Taliban meeting since the fall of Afghanistan in September 2021. New Delhi does not recognise the Taliban regime in Kabul yet but has continued to engage with it with a focus on humanitarian assistance.
A statement by the Ministry of External Affairs said during the meeting the Indian foreign secretary “underlined India’s historic friendship with the Afghan people and the strong people-to-people contacts between the two countries. In this context, he conveyed India’s readiness to respond to the urgent developmental needs of the Afghan people.”
During the talks, not only the focus was on the ongoing Indian humanitarian assistance programmes, but it was decided that India will “consider engaging in development projects in the near future”.
India has cautiously engaged with the Taliban, maintaining a presence in Kabul through a “technical team” rather than a full embassy setup. This team manages the Indian aid programmes in the country.
Despite the change in Kabul in 2021, India has continued its humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan. It has so far dispatched several shipments consisting of 50,000 MTs of wheat, 300 tonnes of medicines, 27 tonnes of earthquake relief aid, 40,000 litres of pesticides, 100 million polio vaccine doses, 1.5 million doses of COVID vaccine, 11,000 units of hygiene kits for the drug de-addiction programme, 500 units of winter clothing and 1.2 tonnes of stationery kits, etc.
In the past, meetings have happened in Kabul with Taliban’s acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi and Taliban’s Defence Minister, Mohammad Yaqub Mujahid meeting J.P. Singh, Joint Secretary in charge of Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran at the Indian Ministry of External Affairs.
During the Dubai meet on Wednesday at the request of Taliban, India agreed to provide “further material support in the first instance to the health sector and for the rehabilitation of refugees”.
The Indian support for Afghan refugees comes even as Pakistan has been expelling the refugees which has become a bone of contention between Kabul and Islamabad.
Cricket and Chabahar port project were both discussed during the meet.
The Indian readout said, “It was also agreed to promote the use of Chabahar port for supporting trade and commercial activities, including for the purpose of humanitarian assistance for Afghanistan.”
India’s support has been instrumental in Afghanistan’s rise in international cricket, allowing them to gain Test status in 2017. Afghan players have been integral parts of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and have been allowed to use Indian facilities as their ‘home grounds’. When it comes to Chabahar port, located on Iran’s southeastern coast, it has provided landlocked Afghanistan an alternative and shorter trade route to the sea, circumventing the traditional routes through Pakistan, particularly the port of Karachi, which has been fraught with political and logistical challenges.
During the meeting, the Afghan side underlined its “sensitivities” to India’s security concerns. India’s primary concern is that Afghanistan should not become a safe haven for anti-India terror groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba or Jaish-e-Mohammed, which are based in Pakistan but have used Afghan soil.