External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar is likelyy to hold a bilateral meeting with Afghanistan’s acting foreign minister amir khan muttaqi in tashkent, uzbekistan, on the sidelines of the shanghai coeperation organization (SCO) educated.
Although there was no official confirmation at a meeting from both sides, the Afghan Taliban regime had asked for a meeting with Jaishankar since India decided to reopen his embassy in Kabul in June this year, a diplomatic source told The Print.
If such a meeting happened, it would be the first face -to -face interaction between Jaisankar and Muttaqi.
The proposed meeting, said the upper-level source, will purely focus on issues regarding humanitarian assistance and assistance intended for the people of Afghanistan.
Jaisankar left Thursday on a two-day visit to Uzbekistan for the meeting of the SCO Foreign Minister, where he was expected to hold many bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the main event, including a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
While Jaishankar and Muttaqi are likely to take the stock of humanitarian assistance that flows from India to Afghanistan at the proposed meeting, the Afghan team is likely to make a proposal for New Delhi to continue work in several Indian infrastructure projects that stop the overthrow of the former Ashraf Ghani government in Kabul, Sumber said To The Print.
Jaishankar, on the other hand, is likely to “insist strongly” in the fact that New Delhi will not tolerate the increase in terrorism in Afghanistan, thus reaffirming the Indian stand took under the UN resolution 2593 which was passed in August last year during his presidency for the council UN security, Sumber added.
India has been involved with the Taliban since the last one took over power in Kabul in August last year. But in June this year New Delhi made a decision to reopen his embassy in Afghanistan by sending a “technical team” to there.
Early in that month, India had sent an official delegation to Kabul led by J.P. Singh, a joint secretary (Pakistan, Afghan and Iranian division) at the Ministry of External Affairs (AEC), who also held a meeting with Muttaqi. Singh is also part of the Indian delegation in Tashkent for the meeting of the SCO Foreign Minister.
International Conference on Afghanistan
Muttaqi, meanwhile, has been in Tashkent since the beginning of this week because he also had to attend a special meeting in Afghanistan organized by the Uzbek government. The meeting was attended by more than 30 countries, including India.
