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Taliban shows willing-signs to get along with India
Shir Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, a prominent member of the political office the Taliban in Qatar, told Ariana News that as soon as Delhi contributed positively to the Afghan peace process, the Taliban were ready to get along.
Since the start of the talks between the United States and the Taliban in 2019, many countries, including Russia, China, Pakistan, Iran, and some Central Asian countries, have approached the Taliban representatives, except for India.
The United States has recently poked India to participate in the process. The Taliban have also welcomed it, saying it is conditional of a positive move by the India side.
Responding to the question ‘if the Taliban were willing to talk to India as part of the US efforts’, the group’s prominent member Stanikzai said, “We have no problem with anyone who wants to take a positive step towards peace in Afghanistan. Whenever they want to take a positive step in this regard, we are ready to talk with them for peace.”
Zalmay Khalilzad, the US special representative for reconciliation in Afghanistan, has said India was an important element in Afghanistan’s peace process and would welcome its involvement in it
In the meantime, ThePrint, an Indian digital news platform, has written that it was not expected that the Narendra Modi administration would change its position and be directly part of Afghanistan’s peace talks with the Taliban unless it derives from pressure by the United States.
It has quoted senior Indian officials as saying that New Delhi was willing to speak out if the Taliban recognized the democratic government – the Afghan government – and that the United States was now forcing India to take part in the Afghan peace talks.
An Afghan free journalist, Sami Yousufzai, who is mostly following the peace process and its events, believes that India is deeply concerned about the Taliban’s return to the Afghan political system.
“It is a fact that during the Taliban regime, thousands of Kashmiri jihadist fighters were active in Afghanistan.” He has said noting that when the United States sought a guarantee from the Taliban that there would be no more room for al-Qaeda or other groups that pose a threat to the United States and the West, India also wanted to receive a commitment from the Taliban as such.
On the other hand, according to Yousufzai, Zalmay Khalilzad has tried to share India’s concerns with the Taliban, which seems to be fruitful as a relationship seems to have taken birth between the Taliban and India.
The progress in the Afghan peace talks has shown that Pakistan has influence over the Taliban and is a key player in the process.
India, on the other hand, had no place in the process but has now made it clear that at the other end of the process – the Afghan government – it has a strong position in relation to the Ghani-led government.
Ahmad Saeedi, a former diplomat at the Afghan embassy in Pakistan, said that following the US-Taliban agreement, [India] was deeply concerned thinking that all the provisions of the agreement were in Pakistan’s interest; therefore, Zalmay Khalilzad has been trying to seek India’s satisfaction to step into negotiations with the Taliban.
So far, India has not yet announced its will for direct talks with the Taliban; however, a point to be noted is that after meeting with Indian officials, Zalmay Khalilzad traveled to Pakistan and met with Qamar Bajwa, Pakistani army’s chief of staff, to seek Islamabad’s support in speeding up starting the Intra-Afghan talks, reducing violence, and overall, to help take the Afghan peace process to next level.
Khalilzad travels to Qatar to meet with Taliban political representatives, following up on his agenda: the acceleration of government-Taliban prisoner releases, the immediate start of Intra-Afghan talks, the reduction of violence, the humanitarian ceasefire, and last but not the least, India’s participation in the peace process.
The Ministry of Refugees and Repatriations (MoRR) says over 1,000 Afghan migrants were forcibly returned from Pakistan on Tuesday through Spin Boldak border crossing in Kandahar province, the ministry said in a statement.
The ministry stated that based on information provided by the Spin Boldak Kandahar border command, these returnees comprised 191 families, totalling 998 people.
In addition, three migrants released from Pakistani prisons were also returned, according to the statement.
The statement added that after registering the returnees, the refugees were referred to the offices of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the World Food Program (WFP) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
Each family received 10,000 afghanis – paid to them by the Islamic Emirate.
In another statement, the ministry said that 2,783 migrants living in Iran voluntarily and forcibly returned to the country during this week.
Hamidullah Akhundzadeh, acting Minister of Transport and Aviation, headed a delegation to Uzbekistan for a ‘Six-Party Corridor’ meeting that included representatives from Afghanistan, Russia, Belarus, Pakistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
On the sidelines of this meeting the Afghanistan delegation discussed trade through the corridor with the other five relevant countries.
According to the ministry of transport and aviation, Akhundzadeh met with the deputy ministers of transport of Russia and Belarus.
He also discussed ways to expand transit between Afghanistan and Russia; and Afghanistan and Belarus, and provide the necessary facilities to achieve this.
The ministry added that the acting minister had a bilateral meeting with the Minister of Transport and the Special Representative of the President of Uzbekistan on Afghanistan and discussed the expansion of road transport between the two countries.
Representatives of Malaysia’s ministries of foreign affairs, defense and interior and advisors of the Malaysian Prime Minister and the Special Representative of Malaysia for Afghanistan arrived in Kabul this week for meetings with a number of high-ranking officials.
The Islamic Emirate’s foreign minister Mawlavi Amir Khan Muttaqi met with the delegation and thanked Malaysia for assistance it has provided over the past few years, including aid for the victims of the deadly Herat earthquake.
Muttaqi said in the meeting that existing diplomatic, religious, cultural and economic relations between the people and governments of Afghanistan and Malaysia were expanding.
“There are business and investment opportunities in various fields,” Muttaqi told the delegation.
“Afghanistan follows a balanced and economy-oriented foreign policy in the political and economic field. Afghanistan’s relations with the international community are expanding and it has established good relations with neighboring and regional countries,” said Muttaqi.
Afghanistan is keen to expand its relations with the countries of Southeast Asia, he added.
Muttaqi further said: “The Afghan government wants the Malaysian government to provide health and education facilities for the 3,000 Afghans currently living in Malaysia.”
At the same time, members of the Malaysian delegation said that the Malaysian government wants to expand relations with Afghanistan in various fields.
The delegation positively evaluated the political situation in Afghanistan and said they hoped a Malaysian trade delegation would visit Afghanistan in the near future.
One delegate, Dato Shazlina said: “Malaysia is determined to organize short-term training programs for Afghan diplomats, training programs in the field of information technology, accounting and development for Afghan civil service employees and in this regard cooperate with Afghanistan in organizing professional programs.”
The political deputy prime minister, Mawlavi Abdul Kabir, also met with the delegation and said the Islamic Emirate has achieved much in the economic and political sectors, and that the world, including the region, has no need to be concerned about Afghanistan.
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