In a first, Taliban foreign minister to visit Delhi after UNSC’s go-ahead

This is the first time that a Taliban Foreign Minister is travelling to New Delhi. There is no official word yet from the Ministry of External Affairs on his visit. The visit was being planned in September, but the UNSC committee did not grant him approval earlier.

While India is still to grant official recognition to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, it has been providing humanitarian and development works assistance. Muttaqi’s visit follows his conversation with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar in May this year and Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri’s meeting with the Taliban minister in Dubai in January.

Jaishankar’s conversation with Muttaqi took place on May 15, days after India and Pakistan agreed to stop military strikes in the wake of Operation Sindoor conducted after the Pahalgam terror attack – the Kabul regime had condemned the terror attack.

This was the first political-level contact and conversation since the Taliban captured power in Kabul in August 2021. The last political level contact took place in 1999-2000 when then External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh was in touch with Taliban Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil following the hijacking of Indian Airlines flight IC-814 to Kandahar in December 1999.

In his conversation with Muttaqi, Jaishankar had underlined India’s traditional friendship with the Afghan people and support for their development needs.

Calling it a “good conversation”, Jaishankar had said: “Deeply appreciate his condemnation of the Pahalgam terrorist attack. Welcomed his firm rejection of recent attempts to create distrust between India and Afghanistan through false and baseless reports.”

“Underlined our traditional friendship with the Afghan people and continuing support for their development needs. Discussed ways and means of taking cooperation forward,” he had said.

According to the Taliban statement, Muttaqi had underscored the importance of expanding diplomatic and economic relations between Kabul and New Delhi.

In the last week of April, India had sent M Anand Prakash, Joint Secretary in charge of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran division in the Ministry of External Affairs, to Kabul. Even before Prakash reached Kabul, the Afghan Foreign Ministry had condemned the Pahalgam terror attack.

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