{"id":192726,"date":"2022-06-27T20:36:01","date_gmt":"2022-06-27T15:06:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=192726"},"modified":"2022-06-27T20:37:42","modified_gmt":"2022-06-27T15:07:42","slug":"making-sense-of-new-delhis-taliban-rapprochement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/making-sense-of-new-delhis-taliban-rapprochement\/","title":{"rendered":"Making sense of New Delhi\u2019s Taliban rapprochement"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>News:<\/strong> Recently, India sent a senior diplomatic delegation to the Taliban-occupied Kabul. The visit was the culmination of Delhi\u2019s months of quiet diplomacy and signaling.<\/p>\n<h5><strong>India\u2019s Foreign Policy<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>Just hours after the Taliban\u2019s takeover, in 2021, India was the first country to immediately ban all Afghans traveling to India, including students and patients with a valid Indian visa.<\/p>\n<p>India chose to abstain from the UN Security Council\u2019s call on the Taliban to open girl schools. Further, India remains silent about the worsening situation in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n<p>India\u2019s apparent <strong>reorientation<\/strong> can be described and understood as an example of <strong>realpolitik<\/strong>, and <strong>supremacy of national interest.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h5><strong>What are India\u2019s key strategic interests in Afghanistan?<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>India is facing various <strong>security concerns<\/strong> due to the developments in Afghanistan. There is a nexus of <strong>Islamic militancy, illicit drugs,<\/strong> and <strong>proxy warfare<\/strong> in Afghanistan. And, India is a primary target for this alliance. The Taliban aims to establish a <strong>\u201cpure Islamic Government\u201d<\/strong> in the Heart of Asia, and secure <strong>Pakistan\u2019s \u201cStrategic Depth\u201d<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, the Taliban also possess imperial ambition. For example, to establish <strong>Ghazwa-e-Hind,<\/strong>\u00a0implied in <strong>Mahmud Ghaznavi\u2019s<\/strong> plunder of India more than 1,000 years ago. The British also tried to topple <strong>Afghanistan\u2019s progressive King Amanullah Khan<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>In its first war against India in 1948, Pakistan mobilized<strong> a tribal army <\/strong>to attack India.<\/p>\n<p>Pakistan has a <strong>geo-strategic vision<\/strong> for Afghanistan, i.e., to create a <strong>\u201cGreater Waziristan\u201d<\/strong>, to be ruled by an isolated, ruthless and dogmatic Taliban reign. This would become a major center for producing, training, and sheltering different <strong>Pakistan-sponsored terrorists. <\/strong>Pakistan\u2019s military-intelligence establishment is determined to maintain its monopoly on its proxies.<\/p>\n<p>India wishes to capitalize on the <strong>personal grudge <\/strong>some <strong>Taliban commanders<\/strong> have against Pakistan. It aims to create an India-friendly faction within the Taliban.<\/p>\n<h5><strong>What are the challenges with \u2018India First policy\u2019?<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>It will destroy <strong>a central pillar <\/strong>of <strong>India\u2019s foreign <\/strong>and<strong> security policy, which refers to the <\/strong>dismantling of the region\u2019s \u201c<strong>terrorist infrastructure\u201d<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>India as a \u201c<strong>civilizational state\u201d<\/strong> and an inspiring global power cannot behave as a <strong>bandwagoning, transactional, opportunistic salesman.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>India has attained the status of <strong>ideational<\/strong> and <strong>trustworthy partner<\/strong> among most of the Afghan people. They look at India as an example of <strong>a fellow developing nation<\/strong> that will support them. Therefore, this policy can lead to loss of the<strong> trust<\/strong> and <strong>goodwill <\/strong>of Afghans toward India.<\/p>\n<h5><strong>The Way Forward<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>The prospects for peace and stability in Afghanistan are not feasible if <strong>Afghanistan <\/strong>continues to work in the direction of Pakistan. Because Pakistan itself is facing multiple internal and external challenges.<\/p>\n<p>India has been seen as a sincere friend of Afghanistan, unlike many <strong>double-faced actors<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Afghanistan needs a strong UN mandate, including a <strong>UN-led political transition process.<\/strong> The process can be supported by a UN peacekeeping \/ making force.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source<\/strong>: The post is based on an article \u201cMaking sense of New Delhi\u2019s Taliban rapprochement\u201d published in the \u201cThe Hindu\u201d on 27<sup>th<\/sup> June 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>News: Recently, India sent a senior diplomatic delegation to the Taliban-occupied Kabul. The visit was the culmination of Delhi\u2019s months of quiet diplomacy and signaling. India\u2019s Foreign Policy Just hours after the Taliban\u2019s takeover, in 2021, India was the first country to immediately ban all Afghans traveling to India, including students and patients with a&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/making-sense-of-new-delhis-taliban-rapprochement\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Making sense of New Delhi\u2019s Taliban rapprochement<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10308,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[212,10498],"class_list":["post-192726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-the-hindu","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704919153},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10308"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192726\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}