During the period when the United States of America (USA) and its allies were present in Afghanistan, India was one of the regional actors that increased its influence in the country. Even the building used as the Parliament of Afghanistan was built by India. In this process, New Delhi has conducted an effective public diplomacy as it sees Afghanistan as a gateway to Central Asia. Moreover, India’s aid activities and investments have been appreciated by the Afghan people. However, after the start of the second Taliban era, also called “Taliban 2.0” in August 2021, India closed its embassy in the country and distanced itself from the Taliban regime.
New Delhi’s approach was based on concerns about its national security. In this context, India had two main concerns. The first one is related to radical groups operating in Afghanistan. New Delhi thought that these groups would gain freedom of movement and feared that radicalization would spread to Indian Muslims, especially in Kashmir. It has therefore adopted an approach aimed at isolating the Taliban from the international community.
The second factor is the Taliban’s close relations with Pakistan. New Delhi, which is at odds with Islamabad over the Kashmir issue, thought that Pakistan would gain strategic depth through Afghanistan. This in turn affected India’s approach towards the Taliban.
Despite all these concerns, India has continued its diplomatic efforts to resolve the Afghan conflict peacefully and has sent messages on international platforms to promote an approach based on dialogue, not conflict. This constructive attitude centered on cooperation has brought about some changes in New Delhi’s Afghanistan policy. Of course, the absence of developments in the context of radicalization and terrorism that would confirm India’s fears in more than a year of Taliban rule also played a role in this change.
In this context, on August 12, 2022, Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar announced that the Embassy of Afghanistan has started its activities and 12 diplomats other than the Ambassador have reached Kabul and started their duties.i Therefore, despite not recognizing the Taliban, the New Delhi administration has developed a constructive approach centered on cooperation and demonstrated that it attaches importance to diplomacy. As a result, India’s humanitarian support to Afghanistan has increased, as has its emphasis on programs built on cooperation to keep the country from becoming isolated from the international world. In particular, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s emphasis on the Trans-Afghan Corridor during the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Leaders’ Summit, which was held in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, on September 15-16, 2022, demonstrated that New Delhi will work for a stable Afghanistan and prioritize cooperation projects.
As it can be understood, India has demonstrated that it believes that the Afghan Issue can be overcome through projects that will serve the interests of all states and increase mutual cooperation. This demonstrated India’s prioritization of regional security, cooperation, prosperity and development.
At this moment, India appears to have accelerated its efforts to help Afghanistan develop. This is because the Taliban administration has announced that India is preparing to restart 20 projects in Afghanistan that were started in the past years but left unfinished.ii The statement reads, “Indian businessmen can invest in the housing sector, especially in the New Kabul City Project”.iii This indicates that the projects will not be limited to past initiatives. As a result, one could claim that India can play a critical role in Afghanistan’s development and economic recovery through investments and initiatives.
Moreover, it is understood that India’s constructive role in Afghanistan will not be limited to investments. Even if India does not formally recognize the Taliban, it sends the message that it has the potential to play a bridge role in the Taliban’s communication with the international community through de facto relations with the Taliban. This is because, on the one hand, India is a key partner in the USA “Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy” and a member of QUAD, and on the other hand, it is a key actor in the SCO alongside China and Russia. It has strategic relations with Russia in particular.
In addition to all of this, India’s constructive role in Afghanistan, when combined with Taliban-Pakistan relations, may indicate that the process in the Afghan conflict will not be restricted to the country in question, and may pave the way for regional cooperation. In other words, Afghanistan can also constitute an important cooperation ground for the normalization processes between Pakistan and India.
In conclusion, the new process in New Delhi’s Afghanistan policy, which started with the activation of the Embassy in Kabul in August 2022, is likely to lead to developments that will serve the development of India’s projects in the country and contribute to the solution of the Afghan Issue. Moreover, it can be predicted that Afghanistan-centered steps will play a constructive role in the face of regional problems, especially in India-Pakistan relations. In other words, Afghanistan could become a symbol of cooperation, rather than rivalry, between New Delhi and Islamabad. Modi’s statements on the Trans-Afghan Corridor also point to this.
i “Team of Indian Diplomats Reached Embassy in Afghanistan EAM Jaishankar”, The Week¸ https://www.theweek.in/wire-updates/national/2022/08/12/mds25-ka-jaishankar-afghanistan.html, (Date of Accession: 02.12.2022).
ii “India May Restart 20 Projects in Afghanistan”, News Drum, https://newsdrum.in/international/india-may-restart-20-projects-in-afghanistan, (Date of Accession: 02.12.2022).
iii Ibid.
