At a time when the US is seeking to directly engage the Taliban, India’s shift away from its own “no-truck-with Taliban” policy became evident on Tuesday, when foreign minister Salman Khurshid said New Delhi supported dialogue with all sections of the Afghan society and armed opposition groups “including the Taliban”.
Although Khurshid, who was addressing a meeting of the Asean Regional Forum, stressed that any dialogue in Afghanistan must recognise all internationally accepted red lines, his remarks here amplified the shift in India’s stand against Taliban’s inclusion in negotiations with Afghanistan.
Elaborating on the approach, Khurshid said, “But this process must be a broad based, Afghan-led and Afghan-owned reconciliation process, within the framework of the Afghan Constitution and internationally accepted red lines. This dialogue must involve all sections of the Afghan society and armed opposition groups, including the Taliban”.
Without naming Pakistan, Khurshid said there was a need for joint and concerted efforts to dismantle terrorist sanctuaries and safe havens beyond Afghanistan’s borders and disrupt all financial and tactical support for terrorism.
“We must assist Afghanistan in its efforts to become a stable, democratic and pluralistic state. The international community must stay committed to Afghanistan in the form of development and security assistance during this period of transition and transformation,” he said.
Meanwhile, Khurshid also sought to draw attention to Pakistan’s proliferation linkages with North Korea saying another area of deep concern for India was that of clandestine proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) technologies which posed a grave threat to international security.
“With a view to address the risk of nuclear weapons, materials and technology falling into the hands of terrorists, India has been piloting a UN resolution in this regard for the past several years. In this context, the situation in the Korean peninsula and the DPRK’s links to clandestine proliferation emanating from our neighbourhood deserves careful scrutiny,” he said.
