India’s humanitarian assistance, request for recognition to be key focus during Afghan FM Muttaqi’s India visit

New Delhi: India’s humanitarian assistance and infrastructure programmes will be among the key issues that will be discussed during the upcoming visit of Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi’s visit to New Delhi next week. The Afghan FM Muttaqi, who took charge after Taliban’s takeover of Kabul in August of 2021, travels to Delhi around October 9th. Since August 2021, India has supplied around 50,000 tonnes of wheat, over 330 tonnes of medicines and vaccines, 40,000 litres of pesticides and other essential social support items, for millions of Afghans in need of humanitarian assistance.

Delhi was quick to rush support after an earthquake struck Afghanistan last month. India has in the past built mega infra projects in the neighbouring country, including, Afghan Parliament, and the India Afghanistan friendship dam, and the authorities in Kabul will be keen for this support to continue.

The Afghan FM, during the visit, would be keen that Delhi recognises the government in Kabul. Russia, in July, recognised the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, becoming the first UNSC member to do so. It also accepted the credentials of a Taliban-appointed ambassador and updated the Afghan embassy flag in Moscow. While India doesn’t recognise the Taliban-led government in Kabul, but it had sent a “technical team” in June 2022 to coordinate effective delivery of humanitarian assistance.

Diplomatic contacts have grown since, with the visits of key Indian diplomats to Kabul and the meetings between Indian foreign secretary Vikram Misri and Muttaqi in Dubai in December. In fact, the upcoming visit is the result of years of engagement between the two sides, mostly not in the public.

Earlier on Friday, the spokesperson of the ministry of external affairs Randhir Jaiswal pointed to the UNSC go ahead for the visit. He said, in response to a question over the visit of Afghan FM, “All of you would have seen the exemption that has been granted by the UN Security Council Committee for the travel of Afghan Foreign Minister to New Delhi from 9th to 16th of October 2025. This particular information is there in the public domain. We shall keep you updated in this regard.”

For visiting India or any international destination for that matter, Amir Khan Muttaqi, who took charge as the foreign minister of Afghanistan after Taliban’s takeover of the country in August 2021, needs to get a UNSC approval, since he is on the UNSC sanctions list. He was designated as a sanctioned individual under UNSC Resolution 1988 (2011). The committee which has all UNSC members as part of it imposes assets freeze, a travel ban and an arms embargo on individuals, groups, undertakings and entities associated with the Taliban.

It is important here to remember that Pakistan is the chair of the grouping, but decisions in the grouping are based on consensus. The Afghan foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi reaches India from Russia. He will be in Russia for the Moscow format of talks, which has India, China, Iran, Pakistan among others as key members. It is for the first time that Afghanistan will be attending the meeting of the grouping as a full member.