India At Tashkent Meet On Afghanistan: Taliban Engagement & International Dialogue

New Delhi: On ‘The Gist‘, Ambassador Vivek Katju, India’s Former Envoy To Afghanistan and Former Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs(MEA) in conversation with StratNews Global Associate Editor Amitabh P. Revi.

Ambassador Katju discusses the Tashkent International Conference on ‘Afghanistan: Security and Economic Development‘. India and more than 20 countries and international organisations are taking part. India is represented by its Ambassador to Uzbekistan Manish Prabhat and a Director level official from the MEA. Joint Secretary J.P. Singh, the ministry’s point person in dealing with the Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran region was scheduled to lead the delegation but couldn’t because of some other non-related commitments, StratNews has learnt. The Taliban delegation is led by Acting Foreign Minister Maulavi Amir Muttaqi, who in his opening remarks said, “The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan will not allow any of its own members or any other individual or group, including Al Qaeda, to pose a threat to the security of others from the soil of Afghanistan. Availing this opportunity I would like to clarify that we view regional and world security interconnected with the security of Afghanistan. Therefore, we remain cognizant of all our security responsibilities. Our expectation from the region and the world is to not hold back their efforts and assistance in realizing Afghan security. We also expect the United States to fulfill their part of the commitments made in the first part of the Doha Agreement.”