India calls for pragmatic engagement with the Taliban: Amb Harish tells UNSC

India told the UN Security Council that it calls for a “pragmatic engagement” with the Taliban as New Delhi underlined that a focus on only punitive measures will ensure a 'business as usual' approach. Addressing the UN Security Council meeting on the Situation in Afghanistan on Wednesday, Harish said India calls on the United Nations and the international community to adopt nuanced policy instruments that help bring sustainable benefits for the people of Afghanistan. "India calls for a pragmatic engagement with the Taliban. A coherent policy of engagement should incentivise positive actions. A focus on only punitive measures will only ensure that a 'business as usual' approach continues as we have been seeing now for the last four and a half years," India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Parvathaneni Harish said.

He reiterated India’s commitment to meeting the development needs of the people of Afghanistan. Harish said the recent decision by the Indian Government to restore the status of Delhi’s Technical Mission in Kabul to that of an Embassy “underscores this resolve." "We will continue our engagements with all stakeholders to augment our contribution to Afghanistan’s comprehensive development, humanitarian assistance, and capacity-building initiatives, in keeping with the priorities and aspirations of Afghan society,” he said. Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi was in New Delhi on a six-day trip in October, the first senior Taliban minister to visit India after the group seized power in Kabul in 2021. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar held wide-ranging talks with Muttaqi, announcing the upgrading of Delhi’s technical mission in Kabul to the status of an embassy and pledging to renew its development works in Afghanistan. India had withdrawn its officials from its embassy in Kabul after the Taliban seized power in August 2021.

In June 2022, India re-established its diplomatic presence in the Afghan capital by deploying a "technical team”. India continues to closely monitor the security situation in Afghanistan, Harish said. He emphasised that the international community must coordinate efforts towards ensuring that entities and individuals designated by the UN Security Council - the ISIL and Al Qaida and their affiliates, including the Lashkar e Tayyiba and Jaish-e- Mohammed and proxies of LeT such as the Resistance Front, along with those who facilitate their operations - no longer indulge in cross border terrorism, a thinly-veiled reference to Pakistan. India echoed the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan’s (UNAMA) concern over airstrikes and condemned the killing of innocent women, children and cricketers in Afghanistan. “We also note with grave concern the practice of ‘trade and transit terrorism' that the people of Afghanistan are being subjected to by the cynical closure of access for a land-locked country whose people have been suffering numerous debilitating conditions for many years,” Harish said. “These acts are in violation of WTO (World Trade Organisation) norms. Such open threats and acts of war against a fragile and vulnerable LLDC (Land-Locked Developing countries) nation, trying to rebuild in difficult circumstances, constitute a blatant violation of the UN Charter and international law." "While we condemn such acts, we also strongly support the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Afghanistan,” he said. Harish said that over the years, India has been a strong advocate for peace and stability in Afghanistan. "Coordinated regional and international cooperation on key issues concerning Afghanistan is paramount, as is strongly engaging relevant parties for promoting peace, stability and development in the country,” he said.

Harish added that provision of humanitarian assistance and building the capacities of the Afghan people have always remained India’s priorities. India already has more than 500 development partnership projects across all provinces, Harish said. As was decided during Muttaqi’s recent visit to India, Delhi would further deepen its engagement in development cooperation projects, particularly in the sectors of healthcare, public infrastructure and capacity-building. “We will continue working with UN agencies in critical areas such as health, food security, education and sports,” Harish said. The Indian envoy said that the visit of Afghan Minister of Industry and Commerce Alhaj Nooruddin Azizi to India also helped further cooperation on connectivity, trade facilitation and market access. Azizi visited India along with a trade delegation from November 19 to 25.