Two days before the visit of Amir Khan Muttaqi, Acting Foreign Minister of the Taliban regime ruling Afghanistan, the Indian government came one step closer to formally recognising the Taliban, as a regional grouping that India is a part of admitted Mr. Muttaqi as a “member” for the first time.
Mr. Muttaqi, who is on the UN Security Council’s list of banned terrorists, was given special permission to travel to India, and officials said he would arrive in Delhi on Thursday for a five-day visit.
According to sources, Mr. Muttaqi will be accorded full protocol as a visiting Foreign Minister, including being hosted by the government. He will be received at the official venue, Hyderabad House, by External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar for talks on October 10.
Amidst speculation over whether India will give the Taliban de facto recognition during the visit, former diplomats warned against any move not sanctioned by the U.N., while an anti-Taliban former Afghan Minister said the visit must not be used to foster “regional and major power rivalries”.
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Taliban flag
On Tuesday, India’s Ambassador to Russia Vinay Kumar attended the 10-nation Moscow Format Consultations hosted by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Others in attendance were Pakistan’s special envoy on Afghanistan Mohammad Sadiq and other representatives from China, Iran and Central Asian countries.
Apart from Russia, no country has recognised the Taliban government thus far, and since the Taliban takeover of Kabul in August 2021, representatives of the ‘Acting government’ in Afghanistan have attended the meeting as observers only. However, a photograph released after the meeting on Tuesday showed Mr. Muttaqi amongst other national delegates, and the Taliban’s “black-and-white” flag instead of the red, black, and green tricolour of the previous Afghan republic still recognised by the United Nations.
U.S. demand ‘unacceptable’
“For the first time the Afghan delegation headed by Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi participated in the meeting as a member,” said a joint statement issued by all the participants at the meeting, calling for more economic exchanges, provision of humanitarian assistance, and regional connectivity initiatives with Afghanistan, as well as steps to strengthen counter-terrorism cooperation.
“They called unacceptable the attempts by countries to deploy their military infrastructure in Afghanistan and neighbouring states, since this does not serve the interests of regional peace and stability,” the statement added, referring to U.S. President Donald Trump’s demand that the Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan be handed back to the U.S. military.
Special permission
Mr. Muttaqi is expected to travel next to India, arriving on October 9, when UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is set to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Mumbai. It is unclear whether Mr. Muttaqi would also call on Mr. Modi later in the visit, the first such official visit by a senior Taliban Minister since 2021. During the five-day visit, Mr. Muttaqi, who received special permission to travel from the UN Sanctions committee on September 30, is expected to meet a number of officials and interact with business groups and Afghan nationals living in India.
At a briefing last Friday, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson declined to respond to The Hindu’s query on whether the government planned to accord the Taliban government recognition, and also whether officials would raise issues of human rights violations and the banning of girls education in Afghanistan with Mr. Muttaqi.
‘Await international consensus’
Former diplomats said that inviting Mr. Muttaqi to India was a pragmatic move, given India’s interests in Afghanistan, but warned against giving the Taliban regime full recognition until the United Nations decides to do so.
“India should await international consensus,” said Vivek Katju, who has managed Afghanistan relations at the MEA in the past. However, he added that India should post a more senior Charge d’Affaires at its Embassy in Kabul, which currently runs as a “technical mission”.
“Through our technical assistance mission, we have already sent extensive humanitarian assistance over the last few years. Obviously the engagement with the Taliban has become substantive and the visit of Muttaqi is a welcome step,” Mr. Katju added.
‘India, Pakistan looking for proxies’
Former Ambassador to Afghanistan Gautam Mukhopadhyay said that the move to invite Mr. Muttaqi reflects a “convergence of security interests at the expense of certain values and internal security concerns that held the relationship in check”, even as the Taliban seeks to balance ties with China, Pakistan and Russia. “We can expect incremental increases in visas, scholarships, humanitarian assistance, trade, development and intelligence cooperation and diplomatic ties,” he said.
However, Afghanistan’s former Foreign Minister and National Security Advisor Rangin Dadfar Spanta, who served with former Afghan President Hamid Karzai, said that neither Delhi nor Islamabad should see the visit in terms of their rivalry. “India’s current policy towards Afghanistan is mainly determined by an anti-Pakistan approach. Both Pakistan and the government in Delhi are looking for proxies. This is not about good neighbourliness or peace in our region. Unfortunately, the opposite is true,” Mr. Spanta, who currently lives in exile outside Afghanistan, told The Hindu via telephone.
Published – October 07, 2025 10:28 pm IST
