Russia is continuing with "Moscow Format" talks, where a six-party mechanism aims at engaging with Afghanistan's situation.
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Taliban is a reality - Moscow Format engagement
- Taliban in charge: Till August 2021, no one would agree to a situation where the fundamentalist group Taliban would be engaged by world powers, after it'd have assumed power by force. But that is the new reality. Even for India, where the stance was "no talks", things have changed.
- Moscow Format: The "Moscow format" was introduced in 2017 on the basis of the six-party mechanism for consultations between special representatives from Russia, Afghanistan, China, Pakistan, Iran and India. It could not stop the Taliban from taking charge of Afghanistan, but it is helping in maintaining engagement with the Taliban now.
- The present meeting includes a group of 10 nations including India,China, Pakistan, Iran and the Central Asian republics with Taliban officials.
- Russia had earlier convened a new meeting of the ‘Extended Troika’ on Afghanistan which included Russia, the United States, China and Pakistan. The U.S. pulled out of the last meeting. For now, it is not engaged in the region multilaterally in a formal way.
- Why meeting important: The meeting was important due to the recognition of new reality in Afghanistan. India had earlier established contact with the Taliban’s political office in Doha, Qatar, but this was the first time India met a top Taliban delegation, which included Deputy Prime Minister Abdul Salam Hanafi.
- Modi government's clear stand through the years was to not engage with the Taliban directly or indirectly at all
- Over the past two decades, India was one of the largest regional donors to the country investing billions of dollars which it now wants to be protected.
- Taliban has agreed that they will not allow Afghan soil to be used by any terrorist organisation and this is crucial for India regarding anti-India terrorist groups such as LeT and the JeM. However, it is tough to accept Taliban's promise given its track record.
- Taliban, if isolated, may serve the interests of Pakistan and hence India’s engagement is a necessary.
- Meeting's agenda: It included - Terrorism, Humanitarian assistance to Afghans, and Inclusive government. The matter of recognising the outfit as the legitimate government in Afghanistan was not on the current agenda. The Taliban are struggling to get recognised by world powers.
- What is needed now: In the current situation of a near-collapse economy in Afghanistan, India must pursue more through regional diplomacy than bilateral engagement. The Taliban should be urged to open up their government and share power with other political and ethnic communities. The Taliban needs to respect the fundamental rights of Afghans, something they promised earlier. Countries must stress the Taliban to form an inclusive government and ensure that their territory is not being used by terrorist groups. While India and other regional countries should help Afghans during this period of economic miseries, they should also use their collective economic and political clout to mount pressure on the Taliban to make political concessions.
- Russia's role: After the Taliban’s overthrow in December 2001, Russia-Pakistan dialogue on Afghanistan focused on mitigating immediate threats. In 2012, Russia’s envoy to Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov held talks with Pakistan about reining in Central Asian militant groups, such as the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and Islamic Jihad, which tried to enter Tajikistan and Uzbekistan from their bases in northern Afghanistan. The extent of Russia-Pakistan coordination broadened in 2016, as Russia, China, and Pakistan created a trilateral format to discuss stabilizing Afghanistan and counterterrorism strategy. In December 2016, Russia, China, and Pakistan held talks on combatting Islamic State-Khorasan Province (ISKP), which were widely criticized in the U.S. for excluding the Afghan government.
- The inauguration of the Moscow-format peace talks on Afghanistan in 2017 gave Pakistani officials the opportunity to engage with their Russian counterparts alongside representatives from China, Iran, India, and Central Asia. This caused Pakistan to express solidarity with Russia against U.S. claims that Moscow was legitimizing the Taliban.
- In April 2017, Tariq Fatemi, a key foreign policy aide to Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, claimed that Russia was “positively” using its influence over the Taliban to convince it to participate in peace talks. Fatemi also urged the U.S. to participate in the Moscow-format talks.
- Pakistan’s emphasis on Russia’s growing presence in Afghanistan also had self-interested motives, as it wished to alarm the U.S. and deflect from allegations that it supported the Taliban. Russia defended Pakistan against terrorism sponsorship allegations.
- Despite this uptick in bilateral engagement, Pakistan’s role in Afghanistan has given rise to mixed perceptions in Russia. Russian media have criticized Pakistan’s support for the Haqqani network as potentially corrosive to Afghanistan’s sovereignty, and the Taliban’s appointment of Sirajuddin Haqqani as interior minister will likely amplify these concerns.
- Although Russia-India relations strengthened over the past decade, cooperation on Afghanistan wasn't prominent. In November 2018, India sent Amar Sinha, who served as ambassador to Afghanistan from 2013-16, and T.C.A. Raghavan, a former high commissioner to Pakistan, to the Moscow-format talks. This broke with New Delhi’s long-standing policy of avoiding diplomatic engagement with the Taliban. Disagreements between Russia and India on Afghanistan have also surfaced. In June 2020, Russia claimed that “New Delhi’s policy of avoiding any engagement with the Taliban has had its day” and asserted that the Taliban had abandoned some of its “radical and jihadist principles.”
- EXAM QUESTIONS: (1) Explain how the Afghan state simply fell to the Taliban so easily. (2) What are the various reasons the Taliban are anxiously engaging with the world? What do they intend to achieve? (3) What was the Indian stand through the years, regarding Taliban? Why did it change in 2021? Explain.
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