DAYS AFTER members of the Taliban regime in Kabul attended an online course from IIM Kozhikode organised through the Ministry of External Affairs run-programme, India on Thursday said there has been no change in its position on not recognising the Taliban regime in Kabul. It also said there was no official diplomatic communication regarding this. The Ministry of External Affairs official spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said the Indian side does not issue any note verbale to any entities that are not recognised by New Delhi. “India has been extending capacity building assistance to developing countries across the world through what is called the ITEC (Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation) programme. This includes online courses,” he said. Bagchi said these scholarship courses cover numerous topics and are conducted by different Indian institutions. “These courses are also open to nationals of various countries, including Afghanistan. A number of Afghan nationals, both based in India as well as in Afghanistan, have been participating in these ITEC courses,” Bagchi said. “Of course, the online courses do not involve travel to India.” The MEA spokesperson said there has been no change in India's position on the Taliban regime. “Our position on how we see developments in Afghanistan has not changed. I do not think anything should be read into ITEC courses vis-a-vis that. We certainly would not be issuing note verbales, which are inter-governmental notes, to entities that are not recognised,” he said. In a first, members of the Taliban regime in Kabul attended a four-day ‘India immersion’ online course that began on Tuesday. It is offered by the Ministry of External Affairs through IIM Kozhikode. The course, titled ‘Immersing with Indian Thoughts, an India Immersion Program’, is designed by the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation, a division of the MEA that executes capacity-building projects in partner countries. The Institute of Diplomacy under the Afghan Foreign Ministry reportedly conveyed to officials in Kabul to register for the ITEC course which was to be hosted by the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Kozhikode. The ITEC is the leading capacity building platform of the Ministry Of External Affairs. Instituted in 1964, ITEC is one of the oldest institutionalised arrangements for international capacity building having trained more than 200,000 officials from 160+ countries in both the civilian and in the defence sector.
