India seeks to boost ties with Afghanistan – is it a move to sideline Pakistan?
Officials from both sides recently met to discuss issues, including enhancing trade via an Afghan port run by an Indian company
“They had discussions on India’s humanitarian assistance, how the Chabahar port can be utilised by the business community in Afghanistan for transactions, export and import, and any other things that they would like to do,” MEA spokesman Randhir Jaiswal said at a press briefing last week.
In a social media post, the Taliban’s defence ministry confirmed that Yaqoob met with the Indian delegation to discuss avenues for expanding their relations. Muttaqi’s office has also released details of his talks with Singh, noting that the Taliban’s chief diplomat urged stronger bilateral political and economic ties and requested easier visas for Afghan businessmen to travel to India.
Kabir Taneja, an associate fellow with the Observer Research Foundation Strategic Studies Programme in New Delhi, said India has been trying to promote Chabahar port as an alternative trade route for Afghanistan for a while now.
“[Chabahar is] part of the core design of the project. It is to also give Kabul an alternative to Karachi port, which Afghanistan has used as a primary port for a long time,” Taneja said.
