In an ice-breaking event, a representative of the Indian foreign ministry met the Taliban’s acting defence minister Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob in Kabul. The two sides, it is believed, discussed ways to expand relations, trade and partnership between the two countries.
From India’s side it was JP Singh, joint secretary of the Pakistan-Afghanistan-Iran division of the external affairs ministry who held the meeting with Yaqoob, the son of Taliban founder and late supreme leader Mullah Omar.
Since the Fall of Kabul in 2021 until the Chinese recognition in 2024, no country has recognized the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan. However, some countries have given de facto recognition which makes them functionally recognized by some countries.
Like most other countries, India too doesn’t recognise the Taliban regime in Kabul.
After pulling out all its diplomats after the Taliban takeover, India re-established an official presence in the Afghan capital by reopening its mission and deploying a team in June 2022. Since then, the Indian side has engaged the Taliban and provided humanitarian aid, including wheat, medicines and medical supplies, for the Afghan people.
The meeting is crucial not only because of Afghanistan’s geographical presence in view of India’s but also as Yaqoob has not publicly interacted with Indian interlocutors in the past.
What experts say is that in the meeting, the two sides emphasised their common desire to expand bilateral relations, especially in the field of humanitarian cooperation and other issues, and expressed their interest in strengthening further interactions between Afghanistan and India.
During his visit to Kabul, the Indian official also met Taliban acting foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi and former Afghan president Hamid Karzai.
It is also being said that the meeting is indicative of the fact that India may soon ramp up not just its humanitarian assistance to the country, but also provide assistance in the reconstruction efforts, even without officially recognising the regime in Kabul.
Taliban, however, has been making attempts to register itself as a national government on the international pedestal.
Earlier this year in June, a Taliban delegation had attended a United Nations-led meeting in Qatar. The two-day meeting was the third U.N sponsored gathering on the Afghan crisis in the Qatari capital of Doha.
The United Nations’ top official in Afghanistan, Roza Otunbayeva, had then defended the failure to include Afghan women in the meeting in Doha, insisting that demands for women’s rights are certain to be raised. The U.N. had said recognition is almost impossible while bans on female education and employment remain in place.
In its attempts of establishing its global presence and portraying itself as a humanitarian government, after having replaced the previous one by force, last year in July Taliban’s senior representatives had even met officials from the USA.
This included Special Representative for Afghanistan Thomas West, alongside Special Envoy for Afghan Women, Girls, and Human Rights Rina Amiri, and Chief of the U.S. Mission to Afghanistan based in Doha Karen Decker.
The American delegation had expressed deep concerns regarding the humanitarian crisis and the need to continue to support aid organizations and UN bodies delivering assistance consistent with humanitarian principles. They had also urged the Taliban to reverse policies responsible for the deteriorating human rights situation in Afghanistan, particularly for women, girls, and vulnerable communities.
But the challenges of Taliban and its neighbours are not limited to human rights and equal opportunities for women. The infamous Golden crescent has remained active and drug flow alleged to originate from Afghanistan since Taliban imposed ban on opium cultivation has only seen rise. In another recent report by the UN, it said that the opium cultivation in Afghanistan has spiked by 19 per cent in 2024, covering an estimated 12,800 hectares despite the ban, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has revealed.
Furthermore, studies and reports from across the world after surveys and fact checks suggest that under the Taliban rule, not only Afghanistan’s economy has fallen but malnutrition and unemployment has also soared like never before.
Experts also believe that far from doing away with all these internal issues what Taliban needs is an image makeover. Even today, since the Islamic fundamentalist group returned to power in Afghanistan in 2021 after waging an insurgency against the U.S. backed government in Kabul since 2001, the Taliban has maintain close ties with global terror outfits like Al-Qaeda.
These are the reasons why even after three years of its take over of Afghanistan, analysts across the world are concerned that the Taliban could provide Al-Qaeda with safe haven and allow it to launch international terrorist attacks from Afghan soil.
But in the wake of the recent India-Taliban talks, if the history is to be looked upon, India has turned out to be a formidable financial and humanitarian assistance provider to Afghanistan ever since the fall of the Taliban regime in late 2001.
This goodwill now remains at a risk of being zeroed if New Delhi and Taliban controlled Kabul fail to establish relations.
Geopolitical experts believe that at this time, engaging with the Taliban can also prove instrumental in ensuring participation of other ethnic groups in the decision-making processes in Afghanistan.
They say that India must try to cultivate an understanding with the Taliban so that they can be influenced to accept the formation of an inclusive government with representatives belonging to minority ethnic factions within its government.
