Taliban lays red carpet for Delhi in Kabul
External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar is on a two-day visit to Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan. He is here to attend the Foreign Ministers’ Conference of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). According to reports, he may meet the acting Foreign Minister of Afghanistan Amir Khan Muttaki here. There is a possibility of a bilateral meeting between the two on the sidelines of the SCO meeting. Although it has not been officially confirmed yet.
The Print quoted diplomatic sources as saying that ever since India decided to reopen its embassy in Kabul, the Taliban regime has been requesting a meeting with Jaishankar. If this meeting takes place, it will be the first face-to-face meeting of Jaishankar and Muttaki. The proposed meeting will aim to focus on issues related to humanitarian aid to the Afghan people.
May hold bilateral meeting with Wang and Lavrov
Jaishankar on Thursday left for Uzbekistan on a two-day visit to attend the SCO Foreign Ministers’ Conference. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and their Pakistani counterpart Bilawal Bhutto are also expected to attend the SCO meeting. Jaishankar is also expected to hold bilateral meetings with some of his counterparts from SCO member states (which include Wang and Lavrov).
India became the support of the troubled Afghans
According to the report, in the proposed meeting, the Afghan side may propose from New Delhi to resume work on some major Indian infrastructure projects in the country, which have been stalled since the Ashraf Ghani government’s departure. On the other hand, Jaishankar can ’emphasize’ that India will not tolerate terrorism on Afghan soil. After the closure of Western aid, India has become the biggest support for the distressed Afghans. After the Taliban occupation of Kabul, India is continuously providing aid like wheat, vaccines and medical equipment to the Afghans by road.
Pakistan and China worried about India’s ‘humanitarian aid’
In June last month, India decided to re-open its embassy in Kabul by sending a ‘technical team’. South Asian affairs expert Michael Kugelman said that many people were believing that after the departure of America from Afghanistan, there would be increased interference by China, Russia, Iran and Pakistan, which would increase the difficulties for India, but the current equation seems to be the opposite. Huh. China, Russia and Iran are on the back foot in Afghanistan, the tension between Pakistan and Taliban is increasing with every day and India is ready to enter Kabul.
