India to share talks table with Afghan Taliban

New Delhi: India on Thursday said that it will attend, albeit at a non-official level, a multilateral meeting in Moscow on the Afghanistan issue on Friday where the Afghan Taliban will also be present. “We are aware that the Russian Federation is hosting a meeting in Moscow on November 9 on Afghanistan,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said in response to queries by the media. “India supports all efforts at peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan that will preserve unity and plurality, and bring security, stability and prosperity to the country,” he said.

This will be the first time that India will be sharing a talks table with the Afghan Taliban on the issue of peace and stability in Afghanistan. “India’s consistent policy has been that such efforts should be Afghan-led, Afghan-owned and Afghan-controlled and with the participation of the government of Afghanistan,” Kumar said. “Our participation at the meeting will be at the non-official level.”

According to Sputnik news agency, Russia sent invitations for what is called the “Moscow Format” talks to Afghanistan, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, the US and the Afghan Taliban. The Indian move came after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to New Delhi in October for the annual bilateral summit with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. A joint statement issued following the summit said that both India and Russia supported the Afghan government’s efforts towards the realization of an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned national peace reconciliation process. (IANS)