New Delhi: S. Jaishankar, India’s External Affairs Minister had a call with Afghanistan’s acting Foreign Minister Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi Thursday, marking the first high-level political interaction between New Delhi and Kabul, since the return of the Taliban to power in the Central Asian country in August 2021.
“Deeply appreciate his condemnation of the Pahalgam terrorist attack. Welcomed his firm rejection of recent attempts to create distrust between India and Afghanistan through false and baseless reports,” said Jaishankar in a post on X.
The Indian External Affairs Minister added: “Underlined our traditional friendship with the Afghan people and continuing support for their development needs. Discussed ways and means of taking cooperation forward.”
The call comes amid tensions between India and Pakistan since the terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam on 22 April, which left 26 dead. On 7 May, India launched Operation Sindoor, striking at nine terrorist complexes in Pakistan. Islamabad, amid the 4-day conflagration with India, claimed that New Delhi launched missiles at Afghanistan, a claim which was firmly rejected by Kabul.
Good conversation with Acting Afghan Foreign Minister Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi this evening.
Deeply appreciate his condemnation of the Pahalgam terrorist attack.
Welcomed his firm rejection of recent attempts to create distrust between India and Afghanistan through false and…
— Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) May 15, 2025
The conversation builds on a meeting between Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri and Muttaqi earlier this year in Dubai, as New Delhi looks to strengthen its ties with the Taliban regime. The regime returned to power in Afghanistan in August 2021, following a two-decade insurgency against the US and its allies.
Contact between New Delhi and Kabul remained at the diplomatic level in the intervening period, primarily led by India’s Joint Secretary (Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran) in the Ministry of External Affairs.
Though India does not recognise the regime, it has maintained a technical mission in Kabul since June 2022. The technical mission was originally set up to support India’s humanitarian mission in Afghanistan.
However, with ties remaining tense between the Taliban and Pakistan, with Islamabad carrying out airstrikes across the border in December 2024, killing at least 46 civilians, India has stepped up its outreach.
“During the discussion, both sides exchanged views on enhancing bilateral relations, promoting trade, and advancing diplomatic engagement. FM Muttaqi referred to India as a key regional country and highlighted the historic nature of Afghanistan-India relations, expressing optimism that these ties will grow stronger,” the Afghan readout of the call said, as published by its Consulate General in Mumbai.
Ties between India and the Taliban regime have come a long way since August 2021. Before the return of the Taliban, India had invested roughly $3 billion in the country, across 500 projects. However, its investments have been held up since 2021, while New Delhi has continued its humanitarian assistance to the country.
India’s evolving engagement with Taliban
The Taliban—ousted from power in 2001 after the US launched its Global War on Terror in response to the September 11 attacks—continued to wage an insurgency for the next two decades.
On 15 August, 2021, the Taliban captured Kabul, returning the regime to power in the Central Asian country.
Days later on 17 August, 2021, India moved its embassy staff and diplomats out of the country and had them return to New Delhi. India launched evacuation flights, under Operation “Devi Shakti”, to bring home stranded Indians and Afghan partners, especially minorities over the next 4 months. Roughly 350 Afghan Sikhs were evacuated from the country to India.
On 31 August, 2021, India opened direct talks with the Taliban. India’s then Ambassador to Qatar Deepak Mittal met Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai, the head of the Taliban’s political office in Doha, which was the first publicly acknowledged interaction between New Delhi and the Taliban.
A couple of months after the return of the Taliban, in October 2021, Italy called for an extraordinary virtual meeting of G20 leaders to take stock of the situation in Afghanistan. India was represented by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who “underlined the need to ensure that Afghan territory does not become a source of radicalisation and terrorism, regionally or globally” during the call.
The same month, Indian officials once again met with the Taliban in Moscow, along with nine other countries, to discuss the humanitarian assistance required for Afghanistan. The meeting also was to gauge how other Central Asian nations were planning to deal with the return of the Taliban.
In Moscow, the Indian delegation was led by J.P. Singh, the then Joint Secretary for the Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran (PAI) division. Singh remained India’s point person for Afghanistan until he was appointed as ambassador to Israel earlier this year.
A month later, in November, India hosted the “Delhi Regional Security Dialogue on Afghanistan”, led by National Security Adviser Ajit Doval. The heads of seven National Security Councils, representing Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan attended the dialogue, and called on Modi.
While the multilateral efforts were to ensure Afghan territory would not be used for terrorism, India slowly began sending humanitarian assistance to the country. On 11 December, 2021, India dispatched medical supplies to Afghanistan, for the Indira Gandhi Children’s Hospital in Kabul.
A few weeks later, India supplied 500,000 doses of COVAXIN to Afghanistan in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, while promising another 500,000 doses and food grains to the Central Asian country.
Eventually in June 2022, India opened its technical mission in Kabul to coordinate its humanitarian assistance efforts, as a part of its “step-by-step” approach to opening ties with the Taliban.
On 2 June, 2022, Singh led a delegation to Afghanistan and met with Muttaqi in Kabul. This was the first diplomatic delegation from India to Afghanistan since the return of the Taliban. Singh remained India’s point person for Afghanistan, making a number of visits over the next 2 years.
In November 2024, Singh led an Indian delegation, which met with Mullah Yaqoob, Taliban’s acting Defence Minister for the first time. The engagement with Yaqoob, apart from with Muttaqi, indicated New Delhi’s growing ties across the Taliban regime.
A month later, ties between the Taliban and Pakistan took a nose-dive following Islamabad’s airstrikes across the border. Within a couple of weeks, Misri was in Dubai to hold consultations with Muttaqi.
Most recently, before Jaishankar’s calls and days after the Pahalgam terrorist attack, Anand Prakash, the incumbent JS (PAI), travelled to Kabul and held talks with Muttaqi, especially as tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad were rising.
On one hand, India has kept the humanitarian assistance flowing, on the other, it has slowly increased its diplomatic engagement with the Taliban. Throughout these conversations, India has offered the use of Chabahar Port in Iran, which is managed by an Indian firm for use by Afghan businesspersons.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
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