Taliban wants to open embassy in Delhi

Last Updated on February 20, 2025 5:56 am

The ruling Taliban government of Afghanistan has started talks with the Indian government to open an embassy in Delhi. For this, they have also handed over a list of proposed Taliban diplomats to the Indian government.

According to the international media outlet The Week, Najeeb Shaheen, son of Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen in Doha, Qatar, is the Taliban’s first choice for a diplomat in India.

If the Indian government agrees to open an Afghan embassy in Delhi with a Taliban diplomat, then a new door will be opened for the Indian government’s diplomacy with the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.

On January 8 this year, Amir Khan Muttaki, Foreign Minister of the Taliban’s interim government, held talks with Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), regarding the reopening of the Afghan embassy in India.

This is the highest-level meeting between the Taliban and India since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan for the second time in 2021.

The Afghan embassy in India remained open for a long time even after the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan. Before the Taliban era, diplomats sent by the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan had been running the Afghan embassy in India for so long. In 2023, they closed the embassy and handed over the building to the Indian government.

India has been gradually advancing relations with the Taliban throughout the past year. The meeting between the two leaders is being seen as the first high-level contact in establishing this relationship.

India has invested more than $3 billion (3 billion crore) in aid and construction in Afghanistan in the last 20 years. The statement issued by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs after the meeting said that the topics discussed were regional development, trade and humanitarian cooperation, agreement on launching development projects, and support for Afghanistan’s health and refugee sectors.