Taliban indicated they will be reasonable, says Shringla
WASHINGTON: The Taliban have indicated to India that they will be “reasonable in the way they handle things”, foreign secretary Harsh Shringla said on Friday, adding that there has only been limited engagement with the two sides.
The ministry of external affairs said the discussions between the two sides focused on the safety, security and early return of Indian nationals stranded in Afghanistan and the travel of Afghan nationals, especially members of minority communities to India.
“Our engagement with them (Taliban) has been limited it’s not that we have a robust conversation. But for whatever conversations we’ve had so far, Taliban seem to indicate that they will be reasonable in the way they handle things,” said Shringla, and emphasized India’s “wait and watch” approach towards the Taliban in Kabul.
Recently, India had its first formal and publicly acknowledged contact, Indian Ambassador to Qatar Deepak Mittal met senior Taliban leader Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai on
Tuesday and conveyed India’s concerns that Afghanistan’s soil should not be used for anti-Indian activities and terrorism.
Shringla, who is in Washington for an official visit, said India is obviously very much engaged with the US and following the situation in Afghanistan.
“We are obviously very much engaged with the US on Afghanistan on the situation there, the role of Pakistan there, and of course looking at how the situation would evolve in that country,” India’s top official said.
The Foreign Secretary’s visit came at a time when the situation in Afghanistan is rapidly evolving. Taliban took over the war-ravaged country on August 15.
Shringla called on Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday to discuss their preliminary outreach towards the Taliban.
“They (US) will obviously see how different players get engaged in the situation in
Afghanistan. Pakistan is a neighbour of Afghanistan. They have supported and nurtured the Taliban. There are various elements there that Pakistan supported,” the foreign secretary said.
“The UN resolution on [Afghanistan] that we adopted makes mention of the proscribed entities in the UN sanctions list that includes the Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba. So we do have concerns about the free ingress that these two terrorist groups have had in Afghanistan, their role and we will watch that carefully. So the role of Pakistan as we see is in that context,” the Secretary added. “I don’t see members of the international community being passive over the situation in Afghanistan. We (India) are not there on the ground, have no assets there. It’s not like we are not doing anything, we are in touch with every country that has an interest in Afghanistan,” Shringla said.
The 2+2 dialogue between India and the United States would be held in November this year, Shringla said. “We’re looking at the 2+2 which will happen in November. The exact dates are not yet worked out,” he said.
“We used this opportunity to have the 2+2 inter-sessional meeting at the joint secretary level,” he said on Friday. The last meeting of the 2+2 was held in New Delhi and the next meeting is to be hosted by the US here.
The 2+2 ministerial dialogue takes place between foreign and defence ministers of both sides.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh would be hosted by their American counterparts Secretary of State Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin for the maiden India-US 2+2 meeting of Biden administration.
In addition to being engaged on Afghanistan, the two countries during his visit had an extensive conversation on regional and multilateral issues including the United Nations and the upcoming Quadrilateral summit here later this year. US Special Envoy on Climate Change John Kerry is also scheduled to visit India soon, he said.