New Delhi: The foreign minister of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, Amir Khan Muttaqi, is expected to visit India on 10 October, after the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) approved an exemption to the travel ban imposed on the Taliban leader.
An earlier visit to India was called off due to the travel ban. A waiver was sought for Muttaqi’s visit last month from the 1988 sanctions committee under the UNSC, however, it was not granted, due to lack of consensus amongst the members, in particular Pakistan.
“On 30 September 2025, the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 1988 (2011) approved an exemption to the travel ban for Amir Khan Motaqi (TAi.026) to visit New Delhi, India, from 9 to 16 October 2025,” the UNSC said in a statement.
Muttaqi’s visit will be the first by a Taliban official to India, since the fall of the internationally-recognised Ashraf Ghani government in August 2021.
India does not recognise the Taliban regime in control of Kabul. However, it has maintained a technical mission in the Afghan capital, and has in the last year held interactions at various levels with the regime.
Top leaders of the Taliban are still under sanctions imposed by the UNSC and therefore have to seek a waiver to travel abroad. Under UNSC Resolution 2255 (2015), states of destination, states of transit, the state of residence and state of nationality are all allowed to request an exemption for an individual under the 1988 sanctions to travel. The request has to be submitted through their respective Permanent Mission to the UN.
All 15 members of the UNSC sit on the 1988 sanctions committee, which monitors asset freezes, travel bans and the arms embargo imposed on the Afghan Taliban. Pakistan was appointed as the chair of the committee till 31 December 2025. All decisions by the committee are by consensus, and even if one country objects to a decision, it can be blocked.
In the earlier waiver request, it is believed that Islamabad blocked Muttaqi’s visit to India. The Taliban official was also scheduled to travel to visit Pakistan in Afghanistan, which was called off due to an objection by the US, according to media reports.
Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar had a telephonic conversation with Muttaqi in May, days after New Delhi and Islamabad agreed to pause hostilities following Operation Sindoor. It was the first-such interaction between New Delhi and Kabul at that level since August 2021. Prior to Jaishankar’s meeting, Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri met with Muttaqi in Dubai in January this year.
India has stepped up its outreach with the Taliban regime in recent months following an airstrike by Pakistan in Afghanistan’s Paktika province in December 2024, which killed 46 people, including women and children. The target, Islamabad maintains, was a training facility for insurgents.
As for ties between New Delhi and Kabul, they have come a long way since 2021. Before the Taliban recaptured power, India had invested over $3 billion in Afghanistan across more than 500 projects. However, development assistance has been held up since the return of the Taliban.
New Delhi has, however, maintained a strong humanitarian support system for Kabul, including donating COVID-19 vaccines and food grains since 2021.
Muttaqi, meanwhile, has seen his profile grow on the global stage with a visit to China in May this year. The Taliban official is set to travel to Moscow on 6 October. On 7 October, he will meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov for the seventh round of Moscow Format Consultations on Afghanistan. Following the visit to Moscow, Muttaqi is expected to travel to New Delhi, for his first visit to India.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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