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Mint Explainer: Why India continues to aid Afghanistan despite Taliban rule
Summary
- It partly stems from a desire to prevent a humanitarian disaster in Afghanistan, regardless of the regime in power in Kabul
Despite the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in 2021, India has continued to supply humanitarian relief to the country. Mint explains why.
- The Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan was unwelcome news for New Delhi. From the terrorist group’s close links to Pakistan, to India’s backing for its rivals in the Afghan civil war, the Taliban and India could not be more fundamentally opposed to each other.
- However, since the fall of the US-backed Afghan government in 2021, the Taliban has approached India for support on a range of issues, including humanitarian assistance. The regime in Kabul is facing an economic and humanitarian crisis.
- It has also asked India to build infrastructure and to bring investment into Afghanistan. India has provided the country food aid, winter clothing and covid vaccines.
- In June 2022 India sent a team of foreign ministry officials to meet with Taliban leaders. It subsequently sent a ‘technical team’ to staff its Embassy in Kabul. It has restarted work on stalled infrastructure projects. It has also sent food aid, most recently in August, through Chabahar port in Iran.
- The Taliban’s reasons for courting India may have to do with the country’s long-standing investments and experience delivering development projects in Afghanistan. The country is heavily dependent on foreign aid simply to feed its people, with the World Food Programme estimating that 15.3 million Afghans are not consuming enough food.
- India’s motivations for providing aid partly stem from a desire to prevent a humanitarian disaster in Afghanistan, regardless of the regime in power in Kabul.
- Some also see a larger political angle. Writing for the Lowy Institute, Henry Storey said India is playing on the tensions that have cropped up between nationalist factions in the Taliban and Pakistan, the group’s longtime backer. The two have clashed over their shared border, among other things. The Pakistani Taliban has simultaneously stepped up terror attacks within Pakistan.
- “India clearly sees an opportunity to disrupt Pakistan’s policy of ‘strategic depth’, which since the Soviet invasion in 1979 has sought to cultivate a pliable regime in Kabul. In its outreach, India has prioritised so-called “nationalist" Taliban factions that it believes support a more autonomous foreign policy," Storey said regarding India’s cautious engagement with the Taliban.
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