An Indian delegation headed by a senior Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) official met Afghanistan’s interim Defence Minister Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob this week, offering the use of Chabahar Port in Iran to business groups in Afghanistan, while also holding discussions on extending more humanitarian assistance to Kabul.
The delegation led by JP Singh, the Joint Secretary of the Pakistan-Afghanistan-Iran division in the MEA, on November 4-5 visited Kabul, where they also met former President Hamid Karzai and a few senior ministers.
“During the visit, he (Singh) had several meetings with Afghan ministers, including the acting Defence minister. He also called on former Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai and the head of UN agencies there,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in response to a question during the weekly media briefing in New Delhi on Thursday.
“They had discussions on India’s humanitarian assistance, and how Chabahar Port can be utilised by the business community in Afghanistan for transactions and for export and import and any other thing that they would like to do,” he said.
“Providing humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan is an important part of our assistance programme and so far in the last few months, and few years, we have dispatched several shipments of humanitarian assistance. We have longstanding ties with the people of Afghanistan, and these ties will continue to guide our approach towards the country,” Jaiswal said.
India does not recognise the Taliban regime that has been ruling Afghanistan since 2021, but has been providing humanitarian aid, including wheat, medicines and medical supplies, to the Afghan people from time to time.
This was Singh’s first meeting with the Taliban’s acting defence minister Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob, the MEA said. Yaqoob is the son of Taliban founder Mullah Omar.
The Taliban’s defence ministry posted a picture of the meeting on November 6.
Karzai said in a post on X on Wednesday that he and Singh had discussed the long-standing and historic ties between the two countries and emphasised on the need to strengthen bilateral relations “as much as possible”.
While appreciating India’s cooperation with the people of Afghanistan, Karzai said more attention should be paid to the education and training of the Afghan youth, developing trade, and easing travel between the two sides. (IE)
