Taliban takeover in Afghanistan will lack legitimacy: India tells Russia

If Taliban takes over power in Kabul by violent means, it will lack legitimacy, India on Friday conveyed to Russia, which, however, appeared to be content with the assurance of the Sunni Muslim insurgents that they would limit military advances within the borders of Afghanistan.

The difference in the approach of India and Russia came to the fore even as the Taliban claimed that they had now occupied 85% of the territory of Afghanistan.

Also read: Taliban says it controls 85% of Afghan territory

“The point right now we stress is that we must see a reduction in violence. Violence cannot be the solution for the situation in Afghanistan. At the end of the day, who governs Afghanistan has a legitimacy aspect to it,” External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said after a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow.

He said that New Delhi was concerned over the situation in Afghanistan, as it would have “implications for regional security and stability”.

Lavrov, however, said that while Russia too was concerned over the recent surge in violence in Afghanistan, it would not step in as long as it did not have a spillover effect on its partners in the region.

“As for the continued military action in the absence of the political process, then the events in Afghanistan’s territory concern us exclusively from the point of view of a possible spillover of troubles in to the territory of our allies,” Russian Foreign Minister said.

“The fact that the Taliban have occupied border posts on the border with Iran, on the border with Tajikistan... while this is happening on Afghanistan’s territory, we’re not going to undertake any measures except for our insistent calls for the political process, which all Afghans have said they support, to happen as soon as possible.”

Also read: How Taliban launched a movement in Afghanistan

Jaishankar and Lavrov were addressing media persons after the meeting.

The External Affairs Minister was in Moscow just a day after the Russian Government hosted a delegation of the Taliban.

Russia’s special envoy for Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, had a meeting with the leaders of Taliban. He conveyed to them Moscow’s expectation that escalation of violence in Afghanistan in the wake of the withdrawal of the United States troops would not have any spillover effect beyond the borders of the conflict-ravaged nation.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Government later said that the Taliban leaders had assured that the militants would not violate Afghanistan’s borders with the Central Asian countries and would also ensure security of the foreign diplomatic and consular missions in Kabul.

Jaishankar also discussed the situation in Afghanistan and its implications for India and other nations in the region with his counterpart in the Iranian Government Javad Zarif during a brief stopover in Tehran on Wednesday.

Zarif too had hosted a delegation of the Taliban just the day before Jaishankar arrived in Tehran.