India boosts relations with the Taliban, bypassing Pakistan

India’s foreign secretary met Afghanistan’s acting foreign minister in Dubai. In a statement, India’s Ministry of External Affairs stressed the importance of humanitarian aid to the Afghan people, but it is also in New Delhi's interest to develop trade through the Iranian port of Chabahar to bypass the ports of Karachi and Gwadar, in rival Pakistan.

New Delhi (AsiaNews) – The Taliban regime in Afghanistan has called India a “significant regional and economic partner" following the meeting on Wednesday, in Dubai, between the Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri and the Acting Foreign Minister of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan Amir Khan Muttaqi. This is the highest-level diplomatic exchange between India and Afghanistan since the Taliban came back to power.

A Taliban spokesman said the two sides discussed expanding relations and increasing trade through the port of Chabahar in Iran, which is of crucial importance to India because it allows it to bypass the ports of Karachi and Gwadar, in rival Pakistan.

In a statement, India stressed its “readiness to respond to the urgent developmental needs of the Afghan people” through an assessment of the "ongoing Indian humanitarian assistance programmes.”

So far, India has sent food, generic medicines and vaccines, pesticides, and emergency aid to Afghanistan, India’s External Affairs Ministry said. The port of Chabahar will be used to support “trade and commercial activities, including for the purpose of humanitarian assistance, for Afghanistan,” reads the Indian statement.

The two officials also discussed cooperation in cricket, security and the repatriation of Afghan refugees, who will be provided with "material support".

According to some experts, India could accept the Taliban's request to issue visas to a large contingent of Afghan students.

Like the rest of the international community, India has never recognised the Taliban regime, but in June 2022, about a year after the latter’s return to power, New Delhi reopened its embassy, sending a team of "technical experts" to manage aid distribution to Afghans.

In November 2023, the visas for the representatives of the previous Afghan government who ran the embassy in New Delhi were not renewed, while a consul named by the Taliban for Mumbai was approved.

Joint Secretary JP Singh, who manages relations with Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan, met Muttaqi in March last year to discuss the port of Chabahar, where the Taliban want to invest 35 million dollars.

Despite the great focus on boosting bilateral trade through the port, some analysts have stressed India's need to keep diplomatic channels with Afghanistan open for other reasons as well.

“One can speak of India’s outreach to the Taliban as an effort to counter Pakistan in Afghanistan. But it’s also something simpler: A pragmatic step that better enables India to pursue a core interest of ensuring Afghan soil isn’t used to host terrorists that threaten India,” twitted Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the US-based Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

India’s move comes at a time of high tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan due to increasing attacks by the Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the Pakistani Taliban, which, according to Islamabad, receive support from their Afghan counterpart.

After a TTP attack on Pakistani security forces on 20 December, Pakistan launched a military operation in Paktika, a province in eastern Afghanistan, which was promptly condemned by Indian authorities.

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• india
• afghanistan
• iran
• pakistan
• taliban
• diplomatic relations
• humanitarian aid