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India has announced it will join a small group of countries in reopening its embassy in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, part of a rapid and controversial upgrade in its dealings with the Islamist group’s regime.
India is hosting Taliban’s de facto foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaki for a historic visit to New Delhi and Muttaki held a meeting with his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar on Friday.
Mr Jaishankar announced that India’s embassy in Kabul, which was closed after the group seized power in August 2021, would reopen. India had launched a downgraded “technical mission” to Kabul in early June 2022.
“India is fully committed to the sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of Afghanistan,” Mr Jaishankar said in his opening remarks while hosting the senior Taliban leader in New Delhi. “Close cooperation between us contributes to your national development as well as regional stability and resilience.”
Mr Muttaqi is one of several Taliban leaders facing UN sanctions, including a travel ban and asset freeze, and his visit to Delhi had to be specifically approved by the UN Security Council. That process delayed his visit to India, which was originally scheduled for August this year.
They were first sanctioned by the United Nations in 2001 for abuses committed by the Taliban. afghanistan During the previous rule of the radical Islamic group in the 1990s.
The UN General Assembly has not recognized the legitimacy of the Taliban’s administration in Afghanistan, but several countries, including China, Russia, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia and Japan, have resumed embassy operations and appointed ambassadors to Kabul.