If India, Russia & China were on same page, Taliban would face lot of pressure: Afghan envoy

In an exclusive interview, ambassador Farid Mamundzay calls on regional players to be "unified" & warns of terror groups backed by Taliban who have “regional and international ambitions”.

Afghanistan Ambassador to India Farid Mamundzay. | ThePrint

New Delhi: If India, Russia and China had a consensus on the situation in Afghanistan, then the Taliban would face a lot of regional pressure, Afghanistan’s Ambassador to India Farid Mamundzay has said.

In an exclusive interview with ThePrint, the envoy — appointed by the former Ashraf Ghani government in 2020 — called on regional players like India, China, Russia, Pakistan and Iran to be “unified” on Afghanistan. He added that National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval’s expected visit to Moscow this month to hold a regional dialogue on Afghanistan is a step in the right direction.

“The region also has a responsibility. Sadly, that’s not happening. We have important, powerful countries in the region including India, China, Russia as well as Pakistan and Iran. They need to be unified,” said Mamundzay.

“If we had Russia, China and India on the same page, there is a lot of regional pressure that the Taliban would face. That is not the case today but the visit of the NSA to Moscow is in the right direction,” added the envoy.

This month, top security officials of India, Pakistan, China and central Asian countries are expected to meet in Moscow for a regional discussion on Afghanistan.

Last May, multilateral consultations on Afghanistan between top security officials were held in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.

The Afghan ambassador expressed optimism about India’s presidency of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), adding that the SCO-Afghanistan Contact Group established in 2005 is the type of “intensive engagement” needed at this time. He further warned that there are terror groups in Afghanistan protected and supported by Taliban who have “regional and international ambitions”. 

On 16 September last year, India took over the rotating presidency of the eight-member SCO, comprising China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, India and Pakistan.

‘Will be difficult to work with Taliban representative’

Currently, the Indian government does not have a diplomatic presence in Kabul while the existing embassy in New Delhi is run by Afghan officials who were part of the former Ashraf Ghani-run government. 

On 12 January, ThePrint reported that the Taliban has begun pushing the Indian government to allow it to station a representative in New Delhi and that Abdul Qahar Balkhi, a controversial spokesperson for the Taliban regime’s foreign ministry, was a proposed candidate.

Commenting on these developments, Mamundzay said: “(It is up to the Indian government) on whether they would want to proceed with Taliban’s request of accrediting their diplomats in Delhi. I have no information in this regard. We as the representatives of the former republic will continue for as long as it takes.”

He further suggested that should a Taliban representative come to Delhi, “anyone serving in any diplomatic mission would want an honourable and dignified exit”. 

“It would be difficult to have one mission with two competing agendas,” he added.

The Afghan envoy explained that he would have no problem working with a Taliban representative if the people of Afghanistan accepted the Taliban’s rule.

‘Continuous concern’ over e-visa issue

After the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan in August 2021, India was one of the first countries to introduce ‘emergency e-visas’ for Afghans fleeing the war-torn country.  

However, estimates say that approximately 300 such visas have been issued to Afghans, mostly Sikhs and Hindus, in the last one and a half years, while many Afghan students who gained admission to Indian universities remain stuck.

“E-visa issuance has been an issue of continuous concern to many Afghans over the past 19 months. The approach adopted by the authorities in India — we didn’t expect Afghans to be treated this way,” he said.

“India could have played the role of a transit country (for fleeing Afghans) the way that Pakistan and Iran did,” added the diplomat.

He further argued that other countries like the US, who don’t have a diplomatic presence in Afghanistan, are still allowing evacuation flights and visa processing.

“As I speak, there are three weekly flights from Kabul evacuating Afghans to go to the US. They have no presence in Kabul. There are many other countries with no presence in Kabul yet visas are being processed,” he said.

He urged the Indian government to review the e-visa policy soon. 

Last November, Qadir Shah, head of trade office (counsellor) at the Embassy of Afghanistan in New Delhi, told ThePrint that the India International Trade Fair (IITF) — an annual event organised by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry in Delhi —  had seen an uptick of Afghan traders but the vast majority still faced e-visa issues. 

There were more than 50 requests from traders and businesses in Afghanistan to participate in the fair, but most were unable to secure an e-visa to India, Shah said.