Russia's 'joint statement' on Taliban causes unease for India

The Modi government is still not ready to recognise or grant legitimacy to the Taliban regime in Kabul

A “joint statement” issued by Russia after it hosted a meeting of India, Pakistan, China and other nations on Afghanistan has caused unease in New Delhi as it has stopped just short of granting legitimacy to the interim government set up by the Taliban in Kabul.

New Delhi has not yet officially dissociated itself from the “joint statement”, which the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian government issued after the meeting in Moscow and which recognised the Taliban leaders attending the conclave as “a high-level delegation of the interim Afghan government”. A source, however, said that the document released in Moscow was in fact not a “joint statement”, but a summary of the discussion prepared by the chair – Russian President Vladimir Putin’s special representative for Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, who hosted the meeting on Wednesday.

Two senior diplomats represented the government of India in the meeting, which was also attended by the representatives of China, Pakistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. “It was stated in the meeting that further practical engagement with Afghanistan needed to take into account the new reality, that is the Taliban coming to power in the country, irrespective of the official recognition of the new Afghan government by the international community,” according to the document the Russian government released as a “joint statement”.

The document caused unease in New Delhi as its wordings were not in sync with the position India took on the new dispensation in Afghanistan.

The Taliban on September 8 announced an interim government for Afghanistan with no representation of women and the ethnic minorities of the country. New Delhi called out the Taliban dispensation in Kabul for lack of inclusivity with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, himself, on September 17 urging the global community to tread cautiously on recognising it.

New Delhi had some back-channel engagements with the Taliban before the militant organisation took over power in Kabul on August 15.

The Modi government on August 31 for the first time publicly acknowledged its engagement with the Taliban as New Delhi’s envoy to Doha had a meeting with Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai, the head of the militant organisation’s political office in the capital of Qatar.

The two diplomats, who attended the meeting in Moscow on Wednesday, also had a separate meeting with Abdul Salam Hanafi, the Deputy Prime Minister of the Taliban’s interim government for Afghanistan. Hanafi led the delegation of the Taliban in the meeting in Moscow. Though the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi has avoiding making any public statement about the meeting yet, a source said that the diplomats once again conveyed to the Taliban New Delhi’s expectation that Pakistan would not be allowed to use the territory of Afghanistan to export terror to India.

The source told DH that New Delhi was not living in denial about the reality of the Taliban coming to power in Kabul and had started engagements with the militant organisation to counter Pakistan’s bid to gain a strategic advantage against India in Afghanistan. But the Modi government was still not ready to recognise or grant legitimacy to the Taliban regime in Kabul and that was why the wordings of the document released by the Russian government after the meeting in Moscow on Wednesday caused unease in New Delhi. India, however, did not publicly dissociate itself from the “joint statement” apparently to avoid straining its ties with Russia.

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