The Taliban, the Afghan Islamist group which seized power two weeks ago, has said that their country wanted to have “political and economic” ties with India and also sought to “improve” those relations. 

“We want to have political and economic relations with India like in the past including the air corridor but also we want to improve it,” Taliban leader Abbas Stanekzai, who heads the group’s political office in Doha, said on Saturday in a televised speech. 

He further added, “Afghanistan businesses would like to access to the Indian market through Pakistan.” 

The Taliban’s public overture to New Delhi--first since the group took power in Kabul--is largely being seen as an attempt to assert its autonomy beyond the influence of Islamabad, which remained the group’s main patron for the last two decades. 

Pakistan historically opposed New Delhi’s involvement in Afghan affairs and close ties. with the Afghan government. And, importantly, for the last two decades, it backed the Taliban’s insurgency against the US-backed Afghan government, which it had considered was too close to India. 

Furthermore, to undermine trade ties between Afghanistan and India, Pakistan never provided transit access through its land to Afghan and Indian traders. 

Importantly, Stanekzai in its Saturday speech also mentioned that Afghan traders would like to access India through Pakistan. He also mentioned the “cultural ties” between the two countries. On the Kashmir issue, the Taliban said both countries, India and Pakistan, should seek a “bilateral solution”. 

In the last three years, almost all major and regional countries have opened dialogue with the Taliban. India remains an exception. However, reports suggested India and the Taliban had opened tentative intelligence level contacts a few months back. The extent and scale of the back-door talks though remained unknown. 

It is to be noted that India, since the fall of the US-backed Afghan government, has not mentioned the group by name, or criticized it, in any of the statements it has issued on Afghanistan so far. The fall of the Afghan government served as a body blow to India’s strategic interests and now it appears to be in a wait and watch situation before making any concrete diplomatic move beyond evacuation of its citizens. 

Importantly, the statement came two days after the Kabul airport bombing, which served a blow to the Taliban’s efforts to gain the confidence of the international community and bring back embassies there. 

Avinash Paliwal, an associate professor at the University of Landon and an expert on the region, made an interesting comment on the timing of this overture to India. 

In a tweet, he said, “Kabul airport attack holds the potential to complicate Pindi-Taliban relns [relations]. The former wants to retain leverage over TB [the Taliban], & the latter seeks autonomy. *If* TB [the Taliban] views the attack as an ISI-enabled gig, it makes sense to throw India in today’s briefing as a signal to Pindi (Pakistan).” 

Also, there is a growing debate on the connection between the ISI, Pakistan’s intelligence agency, and the ISIS-K, the group which claimed the Kabul airport bombing. ISIS-K remains a political and ideological rival of the Taliban in Afghanistan. In many parts of the country, both have fought fierce battles in the last 4 years. 

(SAM)