On Monday, a senior official from the Qatari government claimed that an Indian delegation made a “quiet visit” to Qatar to meet with the Taliban.
As per a report published on The Wire, Mutlaq bin Majed Al Qahtani, Qatar’s special envoy for counter-terrorism and mediation of conflict resolution, revealed the information during a webinar, in the first official acknowledgment of links between India and the Afghan insurgent group, Taliban.
So far, The Wire report says that Indian government has not responded to these remarks.
On being questioned by The Hindu about India’s role in the stalled Afghan peace process, Qahtani responded that it was a complicated question.
“Afghanistan soil should not become a proxy for any countries. Yes, it is in the interest of Pakistan to have a more stable Afghanistan. It is in the interest of India to have a more stable Afghanistan. We understand Pakistan is a neighbouring country. India is the country that has done a lot of economically and of course they want Pakistan to be more peaceful and stable,” he said.
He, then, stated that the India has reached out to Taliban’s political office in Doha. “I understand that there has been quiet visit by Indian officials from India to speak with the Taliban. Why? Because not everyone is believing that Taliban will dominate and take over, but because the Taliban is a key component of future Afghanistan. So, I see the reason of having a dialogue or talks and reaching out to all parties in Afghanistan,” he said.
He also said that given it was a critical stage in the Afghan peace process, and that if any meeting is taking place, “it should be for a main reason to encourage the parties to solve their differences by peaceful means.”
India, officially, never recognized Taliban and has accorded the Afghan government as the only legitimate stakeholder in the war-ravaged country.
During the talks between the Taliban and the Afghan Government in Moscow, India rather than sending officials in the delegation, had sent retired diplomats as observers.
Last year, during the signing of the Doha agreement, India’s ambassador to Qatar attended the ceremony
And India also sent a senior diplomat to Doha for the intra-Afghan talks in September 2020, while the foreign minister, S. Jaishankar attended the meeting via video link.
Jaishankar also transited twice through Qatar during his visit to Kenya and Kuwait. India had stated that he had met with the Qatari leadership and US Special Representative for Afghanistan reconciliation, Zalmay Khalilzad in Doha.
Earlier in June, a huge shift in India’s Policy by attempts to conduct outreach with the Taliban was reported by The Hindustan times.
And in response, the external affairs ministry spokesperson, Arindam Bagchi, refused to comment on the particular report, but he added that India has supported “all peace initiatives, and have been engaged with several stakeholders, including regional countries.”
Bagchi reiterated, “We are in touch with various stakeholders, as I said, in pursuance of our long term commitments towards development and reconstruction of Afghanistan.”
The Wire report also noted that this was the second time that an official of a Gulf kingdom had mentioned an Indian diplomatic initiative which was largely kept as a secret by the government.