Taliban says India reopened embassy as security 'established' in Afghanistan, New Delhi says only technical team deployed

India remains firmly committed to provide immediate relief assistance for the people of Afghanistan, said Bagchi, the spokesperson of MEA

The Taliban has projected New Delhi’s move to deploy a ‘technical team” at the Embassy of India in Kabul as a vindication of its claim that its government has ‘established’ security in Afghanistan.

New Delhi on Friday sent more emergency relief assistance for quake-hit Paktika and Khost provinces of Afghanistan, but refrained from terming it as reestablishment of its diplomatic relations with the war-ravaged country, as it would have been tantamount to giving some degree of recognition to the Taliban’s government in Kabul.

The Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi rather invoked India’s “historical and civilizational relationship” with the people of Afghanistan while announcing deployment of the technical team at the Embassy of India in Kabul on Thursday. India stands in solidarity with the people of Afghanistan, it stated in another press-release issued in New Delhi on Friday.

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India remains firmly committed to provide immediate relief assistance for the people of Afghanistan, Arindam Bagchi, the spokesperson of the MEA, said in New Delhi.

A military aircraft of the Indian Air Force and a civilian aircraft of the Kam Airways on Thursday and Friday carried altogether 27 tonnes of emergency relief assistance – family ridge tents, sleeping bags, blankets, sleeping mats and other essential items – from New Delhi to Kabul for distribution among the people of quake-hit areas in Afghanistan.

The earthquake on Wednesday killed hundreds and injured thousands in Paktika and Khost provinces of Afghanistan. It also rendered thousands homeless.

New Delhi has handed over the relief consignment to the United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) and Afghan Red Crescent Society (ARCS) in Kabul as it has not yet recognized the Taliban’s government in Afghanistan.

The Taliban, however, claimed that New Delhi had not only deployed the ‘technical team’ but also the diplomats and had thus reopened its embassy in Kabul. “The return of Indian diplomats to Afghanistan and reopening of (the) embassy demonstrates that security is established in the country and all political and diplomatic rights are respected,” the government set up by the Sunni Islamist militia stated.

New Delhi had evacuated its envoy to Afghanistan, Rudrendra Tandon, and 175 other officials posted in the Embassy of India in Kabul on August 17, 2021 – just two days after President Ashraf Ghani’s government collapsed in the wake of a swift military campaign by the Taliban. India had also evacuated its officials posted in its consulates in other cities in Afghanistan weeks before the country was taken over by the Taliban.

New Delhi earlier this month sent a delegation of officials, led by its senior diplomat J P Singh, to Kabul to oversee the delivery operations of India’s humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan. Singh and other officials had a meeting with Foreign Minister of the Taliban’s government in Afghanistan, Amir Khan Muttaqi, as well as other officials of the governance structure set up by the Sunni Islamist militia.

Singh’s meeting with Muttaqi in Kabul was New Delhi’s second publicly acknowledged engagement with the leaders of the Taliban. New Delhi’s envoy to Doha, Deepak Mittal, had earlier held a meeting with Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai, the head of the Taliban’s political office in the capital of Qatar, on August 31, 2021.

New Delhi, however, has been having back-channel contacts with the Taliban over the past few years as it had anticipated that the Sunni Islamist militia could eventually return to the governance structure in Kabul after the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, thus giving its mentor Pakistan a strategic edge against India.

India over the past few months also sent food and medicines to Afghanistan as humanitarian assistance, which was distributed through the UN agencies.

After New Delhi sent its officials to meet the Taliban leaders in Kabul, Pakistan tacitly hit out at India, stating that it would not want to see “any spoiler” in Afghanistan.