J.P. Singh, India’s official for Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, visited Kabul last week to meet with senior Taliban officials, including Mullah Yaqoob, the Taliban’s Minister of Defense, and Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi, the group’s Foreign Minister. Though few details have been publicly shared, The Times of India described the visit as a “significant breakthrough” in India-Taliban relations. After the meetings, the Taliban’s Ministry of Defense reported, “Both sides emphasized their shared commitment to strengthening bilateral relations, particularly in areas of humanitarian cooperation and other matters, expressing a mutual interest in fostering stronger ties between Afghanistan and India.”
The Times of India characterized this meeting as a “strategic shift in India’s approach to Afghanistan,” suggesting that the Taliban’s repeated assurances that Afghan soil will not be used against India may have influenced India’s decision to increase its engagement with Afghanistan, despite the Taliban’s contested rule. Since taking control of Afghanistan, the Taliban has persistently sought recognition and engagement from regional and global powers, hoping to legitimize their authority.
India’s relationship with the Taliban presents complex challenges for its regional strategies, requiring a nuanced analysis. After the Taliban assumed control of Afghanistan, altering the region’s political and security landscape, India began reassessing its policies toward both Afghanistan and the Taliban. While this relationship is intended to protect India’s immediate regional interests, it must navigate considerable strategic concerns.
India’s Instrumental Policy in Afghanistan
India’s foreign policy in Afghanistan has not been fundamentally based on the values of the Non-Aligned Movement or its historical ties with Afghanistan. This trend has intensified, especially after the Hindu nationalist party BJP led by Narendra Modi came to power. Since Modi’s party took office, India’s policy toward Afghanistan has increasingly focused on short-term political interests. In this policy, hostility towards Islam and denial of cultural and historical ties with Muslim countries in the region have become defining elements.
With escalating tensions between Pakistan and the Taliban, historically seen as Pakistan’s protégés, India has once again considered using Afghanistan as leverage against Pakistan. In this context, while India is establishing ties with the Taliban, it is also attempting to exacerbate tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan, partly to achieve its goals against Pakistan. Such policies have not only strengthened the Taliban’s power in Afghanistan but have also indirectly fueled regional tensions and instability. Using Afghanistan as leverage and aggravating discord between Afghanistan and Pakistan have generally been key elements in India’s foreign policy. India has continually sought to exploit opportunities to weaken Pakistan-Afghanistan relations, even if this means bolstering extremist groups like the Taliban and Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). This approach is detrimental to India in the long term and risks turning the region into a battleground of strategic and security interests, which benefits none of the regional countries.
India’s Transactional and Double-Edged Policy in Afghanistan
India has repeatedly abandoned its allies in Afghanistan, failing to act as a strategic partner, especially during difficult times, such as after the collapse of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.
This behavior is evident in India’s treatment of Mohammad Daoud Khan’s government, Dr. Najibullah and his administration, and even Hamid Karzai and his government members, who had close ties with India and considered it a natural ally. Following the Taliban’s rise to power, India severed ties with these individuals, revealing the instability and lack of loyalty in India’s foreign policy.
Even when Afghanistan needed critical and strategic support, India did not stand by the Afghan people as a strategic ally. This reality can be observed in India’s decision to cut ties with Hamid Karzai and his administration members who had deeply trusted India. This action shows India’s lack of commitment to strategic cooperation and disregard for diplomatic principles. India even restricted Afghan students’ entry into the country, preventing many who were studying in Indian universities from completing their education.
Unlike Pakistan, India has never been a loyal strategic partner to its allies in Afghanistan. When many Afghans tried to escape Taliban rule, India closed its doors to them, and many who had taken refuge in India could not renew their visas. India also remained silent on the Taliban’s repression and human rights violations in Afghanistan, never taking steps to condemn such policies.
Security Challenges and Threats
Strengthening ties with the Taliban could pose new long-term security threats to India. One of the most significant risks from these relations is the empowerment of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which has become a major security threat to Pakistan and the region. The TTP has long held influence in Afghanistan’s border regions, and in some areas, it is difficult to differentiate between the Afghan Taliban and the TTP. This presence has allowed the TTP to gain strength, organize itself independently of official Afghan Taliban-Pakistan relations, and carry out complex attacks within Pakistan.
This situation poses a serious threat to India, as the TTP could inspire Islamic extremist forces within India by spreading violence and instability throughout the region, thus jeopardizing India’s security. Additionally, with the Taliban back in power, numerous reports indicate that many Indian Muslim extremists have traveled to Afghanistan, where they are seeking to organize themselves by adopting Taliban-inspired methods.
Long-Term Consequences and Strategic Issues
In the long term, India’s bolstered relations with the Taliban could prompt other regional players, including Pakistan, to exploit this situation to undermine India’s position. This approach may lead to the strengthening of extremist ideologies and asymmetry in India’s policies toward Afghanistan.
The Taliban, who present themselves as a “legitimate” government, could use these relations to strengthen their international standing. Meanwhile, this could portray India as an unstable actor lacking a coherent regional policy.
Other potential consequences include complications in India’s relations with its Western allies. Western countries, which consistently condemn the Taliban for human rights violations and support extremist groups, may develop a more negative view of India’s policy toward the Taliban. This could impact India’s diplomatic relations with European nations and the United States, complicating regional policy coordination and cooperation.
Conclusion
While India’s approach to engaging with the Taliban may be justified by security concerns and the desire to prevent further Pakistani influence in Afghanistan, this strategy may prove detrimental to India’s long-term strategic interests. Moreover, this policy has already fostered a significant level of distrust between Afghanistan’s political and progressive elites and India. Consequently, India has not only created security threats for itself but has also turned its back on its democratic and humanitarian principles, seemingly sacrificing its values under the guise of “strategic necessity.”
These days, Afghan intellectuals often say that in a future democratic Afghanistan, there will be a need to redefine relations with India. They argue that India’s relationship with the Taliban has not only perpetuated extremism and backwardness in Afghanistan but also led to a perception that India is trying to impose the Taliban on Afghanistan—a notion previously pushed by Indians that extremism originated from Pakistan. India’s support for the Taliban overall contributes to the continuation of proxy wars in Afghanistan, something India had long warned Afghanistan against supporting.