New Delhi: Ten months after vacating all Indian staff from the embassy in Kabul following the Taliban takeover, India on Thursday deployed an “Indian technical team” that flew down from New Delhi to be stationed at the embassy as part of “continuation” of New Delhi’s “engagement with the Afghan people”.
The deployment of Indian staff at the Kabul Embassy comes close on the heels of the visit of a high-level team from the Ministry of External Affairs led by JP Singh, Joint Secretary in the Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, division, who held a meeting with Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi.
In a press statement, the MEA said: “India has a historical and civilizational relationship with the Afghan people.
“In order to closely monitor and coordinate the efforts of various stakeholders for the effective delivery of humanitarian assistance and in continuation of our engagement with the Afghan people, an Indian technical team has reached Kabul today and has been deployed in our Embassy there.
“Recently, another Indian team visited Kabul to oversee the delivery operations of our humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan and met with senior members of the Taliban. During the visit, an assessment of the security situation was also carried out.
“Our longstanding links with Afghan society and our development partnership including humanitarian assistance for the people of Afghanistan, will continue to guide our approach going forward.”
Earlier, in answer to a query on whether India was planning to reopen its embassy in Kabul the MEA spokesperson had said that the embassy was never closed and was being manned by its local Afghan staff.
Today India sent its Indian staff to expand its operations.
The Taliban has previously requested India to reopen its embassy in Kabul. India has pledged 50,000 MT of wheat as humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people, and of this more than 11,000 MT wheat has been sent. Besides, India has been sending medical equipment, medicines and Covid-19 vaccines as part of humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people.
India has numerous ongoing infrastructure projects in Afghanistan.
However, India has not formally recognised the Taliban regime so far.
