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SRINAGAR: India is upgrading its technical mission in Kabul to a full embassy, India’s foreign minister announced Friday after meeting his Afghanistan counterpart in New Delhi. The announcement was made during the first high-level diplomatic engagement since the Taliban seized power in 2021 after two decades of US military presence.
Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said India was committed to Afghanistan’s development and pledged support in sectors including trade, health and education. He said New Delhi is committed to Afghanistan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
“Closer cooperation between us contributes to your national development, as well as regional stability and resilience,” he said, addressing Afghanistan’s Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi at a joint press briefing after their meeting in New Delhi.
Muttaqi, who is among multiple Afghan Taliban leaders under UN sanctions that include travel bans and asset freezes, arrived in New Delhi on Thursday after the UN Security Council Committee granted him a temporary travel exemption. The visit follows Muttaqi’s participation Tuesday at an international meeting on Afghanistan in Russia that included representatives of China, India, Pakistan and some central Asian countries.
India’s pragmatic outreach to the Taliban
The move underlines the deepening ties between India and Taliban-ruled Afghanistan despite their historic antipathy for each other.
Both have something to gain. The Taliban administration seeks international recognition. Meanwhile, India seeks to counter regional rivals Pakistan and China, who are deeply involved in Afghanistan.
India’s Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri met Muttaqi in Dubai in January, and 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 a strategic reassessment shaped in part by the consequences of previous non-engagement as well as to avoid falling behind its strategic rivals.
“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,” said Praveen Donthi, senior analyst with the International Crisis Group.
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.”
India’s checkered past with the Taliban
When the Taliban took over Kabul four years ago, Indian security analysts had feared that it would benefit their bitter rival Pakistan and feed an insurgency in the disputed region of Kashmir, where militants already have a foothold.
But New Delhi maintained 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 back-channel diplomacy and regional forums that subsequently prompted increased engagement between the two countries this year.
India’s renewed engagement with the Taliban comes despite the ruling Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party’s focus on religious identity and past encounters with the group.
In 1999, during the BJP’s previous term, militants hijacked an Indian plane to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. Negotiations, involving Taliban officials, led to the release of three jailed insurgents in exchange for hostages.
That event left a deep mark on the BJP and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, who was engaged in those negotiations, said Donthi. Now India “has been driven to proactively engage with the Taliban, both to avoid similar pitfalls and to accomplish a strategic need to counter Pakistan.”
The Taliban’s isolation
India has long hosted tens of thousands of Afghan nationals, including students and businesspeople, many of whom fled the Taliban. 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.
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.
Still, the Taliban government has been relatively isolated on the world stage, largely over its restrictions on women.
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. He said he believed India should not take “that additional step to legitimize oppressive and unpopular Taliban rule” and “should preserve some levers to enable positive change internally for the benefit of all Afghans.”