Express View: Talking to Taliban

Indian Express

17-05-2025

When the Taliban took over Afghanistan in August 2021, India responded with caution. A few days into the takeover, New Delhi withdrew its ambassador and diplomatic staff from Kabul and suspended direct engagement. Realising that a stringent no-talk policy was impractical, India started to gradually open channels of communication. The reopening of the Indian embassy in June 2024 was followed by a public meeting in January this year between Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri and Afghanistan's acting Foreign Minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, in Dubai. Amidst these developments, since August 2021, India has been regularly delivering wheat, pesticides, medical supplies and other forms of aid. Even in the Union Budget for 2024-25, there was an allocation of Rs 100 crore for assistance to Afghanistan. The first-ever ministerial-level conversation between External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Muttaqi on Thursday should be seen as the next logical step in the incremental outreach by both countries. The phone call took place days after the India-Pakistan ceasefire following the Pahalgam terror attack, which was unequivocally condemned by the Taliban regime.
Traditionally, Delhi and Kabul have had warm ties, barring the years of Taliban 1.0 (1996-2001), when India saw it as a proxy for Pakistan's strategic interests. But relations between the Taliban and Pakistan have been deteriorating rapidly, primarily driven by issues over the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, operating along the Afghan-Pakistan border. Realising that it does not have a hold on the Taliban any more, Rawalpindi has been trying to drive a wedge between India and Afghanistan. In a post on X, Jaishankar welcomed Muttaqi's 'firm rejection' of Pakistan's 'recent attempts to create distrust between India and Afghanistan through false and baseless reports' — a reference to reports in Pakistan that Indian missiles had hit Afghanistan during Operation Sindoor. Amid a widening rift between Taliban 2.0 and Pakistan, India needs to keep communication lines open and prevent Afghanistan from becoming a sanctuary for anti-India terror groups.
There is no denying that the Taliban continues to be an autocratic regime with little regard for human rights, especially the rights of women. That is why India is yet to recognise the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. Indeed, increased engagement risks undermining India's moral stand. But to not engage at all carries risks, too. China has signed significant investment and security agreements with the Taliban, including a $540-million oil extraction deal. Within the power politics of South Asia, given the China-Pakistan-Bangladesh axis, a Kabul-Beijing entente would be a matter of concern. India does not have the power to alter Afghan politics and society, but it has to deal with whoever sits in Kabul.