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Published : 09 Oct 2025, 09:50 PM
Afghanistan’s UN-sanctioned Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi has arrived in India for a week-long official visit, marking the first trip by a senior Taliban leader to New Delhi since the group returned to power in 2021 following the withdrawal of US-led forces.
According to NDTV, Muttaqi was able to travel after the UN Security Council granted him a waiver from international travel restrictions.
The report said he is scheduled to meet External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval during his stay.
Observers note that the visit reflects India’s growing effort to open communication channels with the Taliban administration in Kabul.
Both New Delhi and Islamabad, which share borders with Afghanistan, are keeping a close watch on the outcome of this diplomatic engagement.
DILEMMA
As India’s South Block prepares for the high-level meetings, officials are facing a delicate issue involving the Afghan flag.
Under diplomatic norms, the visiting leader’s national flag is displayed alongside India’s tricolour during bilateral meetings and official photographs.
But since India has not recognised Taliban rule, the new Taliban flag cannot be used in such settings.
The Taliban’s new flag features the shahada in black script on a white field. Yet at the Afghan Embassy in New Delhi, the old tricolour of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan still flies -- India has not allowed the new flag to be raised.
The NDTV report said that during earlier meetings between Indian officials and Muttaqi, the Taliban flag appeared in the background on Kabul’s side.
During a prior meeting between Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri and Muttaqi in Dubai earlier this year, both sides avoided the issue by displaying no flag at all -- neither India’s nor the Taliban’s, it added.
But with this week’s talks taking place in New Delhi, avoiding flag display would be seen as a breach of diplomatic convention, creating a fresh challenge for Indian officials.
IMPORTANCE OF THE VISIT
India and Afghanistan have historically shared close ties. But, after the Taliban’s return to power in 2021, New Delhi closed its embassy in Kabul, reopening a small mission a year later to oversee trade, medical, and humanitarian cooperation.
While India has not officially recognised the Taliban government, it has made several cautious moves towards rebuilding contact.
Meetings between senior officials from both foreign ministries have taken place in recent years.
Muttaqi’s visit is expected to add a new dimension to India’s relations with the Taliban administration, the NDTV said.
Just days before the trip, India joined Russia, China, and seven other nations in rejecting proposals for foreign military bases in Afghanistan, following reports that former US President Donald Trump urged the Taliban to hand back the strategic Bagram airbase to American control.
The countries later issued a joint statement pledging to help integrate Afghanistan into regional connectivity frameworks, the report noted.
India has also reiterated that Afghan territory must never be used for terrorist activity against any nation.
The Taliban’s recent outreach suggests it, too, wants improved ties with New Delhi.
On May 15, following Operation Sindoor, Muttaqi called Minister Jaishankar, while the Kabul administration strongly condemned the terror attack in Pahalgam, the report read.
Earlier, after Foreign Secretary Misri’s meeting with Muttaqi in January, the Taliban government described India as an “important regional and economic power”, it added.
