India recently held first high level talks with the Afghan Taliban, putting neighbouring Pakistan under huge diplomatic pressure!

Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri met acting Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi in Dubai on January 8, 2025 to discuss various aspects of bilateral ties. Later, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs issued a statement, mentioning that both New Delhi and Kabul wanted to strengthen ties. Since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021, India has maintained contact with the war-ravaged country at the Joint Secretary level. In a rare first, India held a Secretary-Level talks with a top Taliban official. According to political analysts, the Narendra Modi Administration in New Delhi has made a quite significant move by holding a Secretary-Level meeting with the Afghan Taliban.

The Indian Ministry of External Affairs stressed that it was not just a courtesy meeting, but Misri and Muttaqi discussed security threat to India from Afghan soil. During their meeting, the Taliban minister assured Misri that Kabul would not allow militant outfits to carry out anti-Indian activities from Afghanistan. Meanwhile, the Taliban Administration mentioned in a statement that the present-day Afghanistan “does not pose a threat to any nation”. Muttaqi reportedly said that Kabul would encourage India to boost trade with Afghanistan and other Central Asian nations through Iran’s Chabahar port. It is believed that the importance of Pakistan to Afghanistan has decreased quite a lot in recent times.

Afghanistan is basically a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the east and south, Iran to the west, Turkmenistan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, Tajikistan to the northeast, and China to the northeast and east. The geographical location of Afghanistan creates trouble for India to conduct maritime trade with other countries in this region. Furthermore, Afghanistan has failed to establish close trade ties with India because of Pakistan which is situated in the south-east (of Afghanistan). The Misri-Muttaqi meeting tried to address this issue, as India and Afghanistan decided to strengthen trade relations with the help of Iran. It may be noted that India has developed the Chabahar port in southern Iran. Currently, India is extensively using the Iranian port to transport goods to Central Asia. The Chabahar port is also connected to the 7,200km-long International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC), a network of roadways, railways and waterways, connecting India, Iran, Russia and other countries. Hence, the Taliban can boost the Afghan economy by using the Iranian port.

Although the US has imposed economic sanctions on Iran, it has allowed India to use the Iranian port for trade purposes. Analysts have described the discussions on the use of Chabahar port between India and the Afghan Taliban as a masterstroke of the Modi Administration (especially ahead of Donald Trump‘s return as the US President). India was involved in several development programmes in Afghanistan before the return of Taliban to power in Kabul. Now, the Taliban wants New Delhi to implement those programmes on an urgent basis. The Dubai meeting also discussed this particular issue in detail.

India has not stopped sending humanitarian aid to Afghanistan even after the return of Taliban and Kabul has praised the gesture of the Modi Administration. The Indian Ministry of External Affairs has confirmed that New Delhi has so far sent 50,000 metric tonnes of wheat, 300 tonnes of medicines, 27 tonnes of earthquake relief, 40,000 litres of pesticides, 10 million polio doses, 1.5 million COVID-19 vaccines and 500 units of winter clothes to Kabul. India also sends medicines to get rid of drug addiction and stationery to Afghanistan. With Pakistan deporting the Afghan refugees to Kabul, India has decided to provide Afghanistan with all sorts of help for their rehabilitation.

In November 2024, a senior official of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs met acting Defence Minister of the Taliban Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob Mujahid. Within a few days, the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) armed group carried out terror attacks in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, killing several Pakistani soldiers. Pakistan immediately accused India of backing the TTP, stating that the Afghan Taliban was providing the TTP fighters with shelters. In December 2024, the Pakistan Air Force launched an airstrike in Paktika Province of Afghanistan to destroy the secret bases of the TTP militants. As at least 46 people, including women and children, lost their lives in the airstrike, Kabul sent nearly 15, 000 soldiers to the Pak-Afghan border within a couple of days. In January 2025, the TTP released images of its occupation of several Pakistani Army posts along the border. Although Islamabad claimed that the Pak Army had already vacated those posts, the development rocked the Pak-Afghan ties.

In such a situation, India would benefit a lot by strengthening ties with Afghanistan. According to defence experts, India may use the Afghans against Pakistan which has always nurtured terrorists. If the border conflict in the western part of Pakistan continues, then there would be a decrease in the movement of Islamabad-backed militants in Kashmir and Punjab Provinces of India.

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das