New Delhi’s ploy to support the radical outfit, which it once avoided, after Islamabad’s airstrikes shows that it has a Plan B to gain ground after ‘losing’ ally Bangladesh.
By Shubham Ghosh
South Asia turned into a theatre of diplomatic punches and counter-punches as 2024 rolled into 2025 and as a major power in the region, India was left to make some deft choices. While the situation in its eastern front bordering Bangladesh turned adverse with the ouster of time-tested friend Sheikh Hasina and not-so-friendly forces taking over the corridors of power, New Delhi tried to make things up on its west where arch-rivals Pakistan saw its ties with its old allies Taliban in Afghanistan plummeting all of a sudden.
Observers were surprised to see India’s Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri holding talks with Amir Khan Muttaqi, acting foreign minister of the Taliban, in Dubai on January 8. In the unprecedented meeting, the two sides spoke about cooperation in areas such as refugee rehabilitation and health.
It is not that India has not kept a channel of communication with the Taliban open after they stormed back to power in August 2021. Last November, the Taliban government appointed Ikramuddin Kamil as its acting consul in Mumbai to make its diplomatic presence in India more visible. The development happened just days after an Indian delegation visited Kabul and held high-level talks with leaders such as Acting Defense Minister Mullah Muhammad Yaqoob, son of the Taliban’s founder Mullah Muhammad Omar. They discussed humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, bilateral issues and the security situation in the land-locked nation.
These can be seen as more preliminary confidence-building measures between India and the Taliban -- an outfit that New Delhi once considered untouchable -- which started once the writing about the Taliban’s return to power was on the wall. India is yet to give the Taliban a formal recognition but that doesn’t prevent it from pursuing realpolitik. But the January 8 meeting happened just days after India condemned Pakistan’s air attacks on Afghanistan which killed several civilians, including women and children.
The Indian External Affairs Ministry said, “It is an old practice of Pakistan to blame its neighbors for its own internal failures.” The statement is significant. While India is still far from emerging as a top influencing voice in Afghanistan’s internal affairs, its solidarity for Taliban-ruled Kabul in the wake of Afghanistan’s deteriorating ties with Pakistan shows New Delhi has come up with a well-timed diplomatic stroke.
The message was sent to Islamabad and also Beijing through Kabul which also claimed to have hit several points in Pakistan in retaliation to the airstrikes. With Islamic radicals taking control in Bangladesh and Dhaka eyeing to have normal relations with Pakistan, reversing their decades of sour ties, India also decided to do something similar in Pakistan’s western neighbor – befriending its old allies Taliban.
With Pakistan set to face some serious foreign policy challenges in 2025, thanks to Donald Trump’s return to the Oval Office; the ongoing Middle East crisis; a not-so-happy equation with Iran; and China’s concerns about the safety of its nationals working in Pakistan.
The Pakistani state is left with more worries as the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, also called the Pakistani Taliban, allegedly kidnapped 16 Pakistani nuclear scientists to force Islamabad to fulfill its demands. Domestically, too, Pakistan is far from having a smooth state of affairs. The economy continues to struggle while internal security is in tatters. Politically, the state is not very stable. These challenges put the South Asian nation at a disadvantage if its issues at the borders become worse.
For India, it’s a perfect way to rattle a possible Islamabad-Dhaka-Beijing axis taking shape in South Asia. It is yet to see whether India’s smart diplomatic act will bring the desired results of cornering Pakistan, nullifying its strategic depths in Afghanistan and reminding China that it doesn’t have an unchallenged run in Afghanistan. But it certainly drives home the point that flexible diplomacy helps in achieving national interest in unexpected ways.
(The writer is a senior journalist and political analyst based in Bengaluru, India. The views expressed are his own)
