Relations with Afghanistan back on track, but India expects attempts to derail

The rapidly evolving bilateral relationship between India and Afghanistan has seen significant strides, particularly as India emerged as the first country to support Kabul following the Pakistani airstrike that claimed the lives of more than 50 civilians.

- ABHINANDAN MISHRA

This act of solidarity was followed by a high-level meeting in Dubai between Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri and Afghanistan's Acting Foreign Minister Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi on Wednesday.

This marks a significant affirmation of the trust the Taliban government has secured among Indian policymakers since assuming power in August 2021.

However, this growing closeness between India and Afghanistan is likely to face covert attempts by deep-state players in Washington, Pakistani military officers in Rawalpindi, and Beijing, all of whom have differing reasons to derail this burgeoning relationship.

Even before the Taliban took power, during the crucial negotiations in Doha between US diplomats and Taliban representatives, top Taliban leaders assured Indian officials, through interviews and communications including to this newspaper-that Afghanistan would not become a proxy for Pakistan's deep state. They promised that Afghanistan would not turn into a sanctuary for Pakistan-based terrorist groups, a primary concern for India's North Block and South Block. Nearly three years after the Taliban's August 2021 takeover, the Taliban has largely honoured these commitments.

In an ironic twist, Faiz Hameed, the former head of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), who rushed to Kabul shortly after the Taliban came to power to assert Pakistan's influence over the new government, now finds himself imprisoned in Rawalpindi. His former agency, the ISI, continues to struggle with its failed vision of making the Taliban and Kabul a proxy for its terror networks—a scenario that many commentators in Washington and Delhi had peddled.