Explained: Why is India hosting an NSAs’ meeting on Afghanistan with regional players? 

What is the News: India is hosting the ‘Delhi Regional Security Dialogue on Afghanistan’.

About the dialogue

India is hosting the NSAs of 7 other countries including Russia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Pakistan and China were also invited but didn’t participate.

The first such meeting of NSAs was organized in Iran. Afghanistan, Iran, Russia, China, and India participated in it.

Goal: To address the security concerns arising due to new developments in Afghanistan. It will address five sets of challenges from Afghanistan. 1) Terrorism, 2) Radicalisation and extremism 3) Cross-border movement of people 4) Drugs 5) weapons and equipment left behind by the US

Significance of the dialogue

It is for the first time that all Central Asian countries, and not just Afghanistan’s immediate neighbours, are participating in this format.

It will increase the possibility of India’s participation in deciding the future course of action towards Afghanistan.

How this meeting is different from the other initiatives on Afghanistan?

This meeting is different from other initiatives like the Heart of Asia process or the Moscow format.

This meeting is not taking place among diplomats or foreign ministries, so, this is not a protocol-oriented meeting. It is happening between the security heads of the countries. They are in a better position for “practical cooperation” among countries— from intelligence sharing to information gathering to counter-terrorism capacity-building.

Source: This post Is developed based on the article ”Explained: Why is India hosting an NSAs’ meeting on Afghanistan with regional players?” published in Indian Express on 10th November 2021.