Taliban Consulted Gen Bajwa Before Asking India to Send Diplomats Back to Kabul: New Book
Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi had a detailed meeting with Pakistan’s former army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa, before asking India to send back its diplomats and technical staff to Kabul, says a new book on Afghanistan’s de facto rulers.
The book, titled ‘The Return of the Taliban’, is authored by Hassan Abbas, who teaches international relations at the National Defence University (NDU), Washington and will be released in the US later this week. Dawn reported.
“India’s return to Kabul could not have happened without Pakistan, and Pakistan acted this way because it just might open up prospects of some aid for the Taliban in Afghanistan,” Abbas writes, arguing that Islamabad is as desperate about getting financial support to run Afghanistan as the Taliban themselves.
India has strategic interests in Afghanistan, the book argues. However, it points out that once the Taliban took over in August 2021, India cut off diplomatic ties with Afghanistan, unlike Russia and China.
Meanwhile, India is now reassessing its position and moving towards a balancing act to engage with the Taliban, while the Taliban’s desire is “international legitimacy and recognition.”
Kabul’s new rulers also need “huge external investments… to reconstruct and revive the country”, and India has the resources to do so, it says.
Since the Taliban came to power, relations with India have been improving again.
India has sent a team from its embassy to Kabul, and meanwhile, India is again providing humanitarian aid to Afghanistan.
However, India has reiterated the security concern and the growing of militants, such as Daesh and others. At the same time, the de facto authorities deny the allegations and say they will not allow any group or individual to use Afghanistan soil against neighbouring countries.
The post Taliban Consulted Gen Bajwa Before Asking India to Send Diplomats Back to Kabul: New Book appeared first on Khaama Press.