Afghan Foreign Minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar tweeted on Tuesday night after talking to S Jaishankar, “Spoke to Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar and called for an emergency meeting of the Security Council on Afghanistan in the UN Security Council. The United Nations and the international community need to take big steps against the violence and atrocities of the Taliban. We admire India as the chair of the UNSC.”
India, Afghanistan, And The UNSC
A statement issued by the Afghanistan Foreign Ministry said, “On Tuesday evening, the Afghan Foreign Minister and the Indian Foreign Minister discussed the increasing violence of the Taliban, the operation of a foreign terrorist group in Afghanistan along with human rights violations. We have requested the Indian External Affairs Minister to convene an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on Afghanistan”. India is currently the chair of the UNSC.
Afghanistan’s Foreign Ministry said that Afghan Foreign Minister Atmar told Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar that the increasing brutality of the Taliban is killing many common people. During this conversation, the Afghan Foreign Minister also raised the nexus of Taliban and foreign terrorist groups. Atmar said the Taliban was flouting international rules.
The Afghan Foreign Minister said that the Taliban’s violence and the foreign aid it is receiving threatens Afghanistan’s peace and stability and will have dire consequences. The Afghan Foreign Ministry says that the Indian Foreign Minister expressed concern about the increasing violence in Afghanistan. The Afghan Foreign Ministry has said in its statement that Jaishankar is reviewing the proposal to convene an emergency meeting of the UN and will talk to the rest of the members about this. The two foreign ministers also discussed the conduct of Afghan peace talks in Doha, Qatar.
India is in the biggest dilemma right now regarding the crisis in Afghanistan. India is with Ashraf Ghani’s government in Afghanistan, but it has become difficult for India to ignore the Taliban. When US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in India on Tuesday last week, a Taliban delegation was on a visit to China. The Taliban delegation was led by Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar. This delegation was met by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Wednesday last week in Tianjin, North China. Regarding the visit of the Taliban delegation, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Chao Lijian said that Taliban leaders have assured China that no anti-China activity will be allowed from Afghanistan’s soil.
China And The Taliban
The Taliban also said that it wants China to play an important role in the development of Afghanistan in the future. Afghanistan is very important for China. Afghanistan is the best way to reach Central Asia. The support of the Taliban is also important for China for the security of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). This is China’s most ambitious project in Pakistan. This $ 60 billion Chinese project is incomplete without Afghanistan and the Taliban.
In such a situation, China has kept good relations with both the government of Afghanistan and the Taliban. Even if the government of Afghanistan goes and the Taliban comes to power, then it does not seem difficult for China to make a deal. India, on the other hand, unofficially started talks with the Taliban late. India remained with the government of Afghanistan and looked at the Taliban the way America used to see India too
Michael Kugelman, deputy director of the Asia Program, wrote in Foreign Policy magazine, “India and America have common interests on many fronts, but the case of Afghanistan is different. When US President Biden decided to withdraw the army, naturally the Taliban got stronger. As the Taliban strengthened, attacks on Indian interests in Afghanistan abounded. The Taliban seems to be reaching power now and it is in the interest of Pakistan.” There have been no Pakistan-backed governments in Afghanistan since the arrival of US forces in 2001.
Michael Kugelman has written, “India has made huge investments in Afghanistan. Since 2001, India has provided financial assistance of three billion dollars to Afghanistan. After the ouster of the Taliban, all the governments of Afghanistan remained close to India. But China and Pakistan have emerged as major tensions for India. China and Pakistan seem to be filling the void that will be created after America’s departure from Afghanistan.”
India has tried to change its policy regarding Afghanistan in the last few weeks. In June, India began formal talks with the Taliban for the first time. India expanded the scope of its policy regarding Afghanistan and in Central Asia, even External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar joined the conference on Afghanistan. Many analysts say that India delayed the start of talks with the Taliban and missed important strategic opportunities.