Kabul to send diplomats to India

Kabul will soon send its diplomats to India as part of "step-by-step" efforts to improve bilateral relations, Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said Friday even as he asserted the Taliban will not allow anyone to use Afghan soil against other countries.

- PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Muttaqi, who landed in New Delhi Thursday on a six-day trip, is the first senior Taliban minister to visit India after the group seized power four years back. India has not yet recognised the Taliban set up.

In an interaction with a small group of journalists, after holding wide-ranging talks with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, the Afghan foreign minister invited Indian businesses to invest in his country's mining, minerals and energy sectors.

Muttaqi also pitched for India and Afghanistan joining hands to remove obstacles for development of the Chabahar port in Iran in view of the Trump administration bringing it under sanctions.

The Afghan foreign minister's visit to India assumed greater significance as it came at a time when both India and Afghanistan are having frosty relations with Pakistan over a range of issues including cross-border terrorism.

Muttaqi said Kabul will soon send its diplomats to New Delhi. "The foreign minister (S Jaishankar) said you can send diplomats to New Delhi now. When we go back, we will select people and send them," he said.