Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, July 28: Even as the Taliban sought China’s help to increase its footprints in Afghanistan in the face of the Afghan government seeking India’s help to checkmate the extremists, the National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval met US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday and had a ‘frank and candid exchange” over situation emerging in Afghanistan,
The meeting in which both sides were seems to be converging on developing conflict situation across the globe went on for over an hour at the South Block this morning where Indo-Pacific and the regional and global security situation besides Afghanistan were discussed.
“The meeting was marked with warmth and convergence with Secretary of State Blinken sharing his perspective over Afghanistan and the Chinese belligerence in South China Sea and Indo-Pacific. The National Security Advisor, on his part, shared the Indian security perspective on Af-Pak region, Taliban offensive in Afghan and the situation in East Ladakh. Both the sides had a very frank exchange on the security scenario in the region and discussed ways to stabilise Afghanistan in the wake of the Taliban offensive,” said a senior South Block officer.
Both sides also discussed strategic issues of importance in security, defence, economic and technology-related sectors. Special attention was laid on long-term measures to take the relationship of both the countries to the next level, official sources said.
China’s help to expand its control in new areas in Afghanistan was sought by a nine-member delegation led by Taliban leader Mullah Baradar Akhund. The delegation, which visited China for two days earlier this week, met the Chinese Foreign Minister and State Councilor Wang Yi on Tuesday. The Taliban leader assured Beijing that they would not allow Afghanistan to be used against security of any country.
The Afghanistan watchers said the conservative Sunni Islamist group was seeking support of Beijing to expand its footprint in Afghanistan after assuring China that Afghanistan under Taliban would not allow its territory to be used by terrorists to target any third country. The assurance was given by Mullah Barader as Beijing was worried that China’s Uighur extremist movement might get shelter in Emirate of Afghanistan through the Wakhan corridor.
China, which wants to use Afghanistan as a route to Central Asian republics of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan after the complete withdrawal of the US army by August 31, is looking towards “expanding the Belt and Road initiative into Afghanistan and thereon to Central Asia for taking a grip on bilateral trade with Afghanistan and exploiting resources like coal, copper and iron ore in that country,” the experts said.
The Taliban in an official statement on the Baradar-Wang meeting said, “The meetings focused on political, economic and security issues related to the two countries, the current situation in Afghanistan and the peace process,” the statement added.
By reassuring Beijing that it would not allow the Afghan territory to be used against any third country, the Taliban are trying to allay global fears that Pakistan-based terror groups and pan-Islamic groups like Al Qaeda would not use the civilian strife in Afghanistan to establish terror training camps for targeting countries opposed to radical Islam. During its first term in power between 1996-2001, the Taliban gave shelter to majority of pan-Islamic terrorist groups like Al Qaeda, Harkat-ul-Ansar, HuJI Bangladesh, held training camps for Pakistan-based groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba and virtually sponsored global jihad around the world.
The Taliban delegation also thanked China for its continued cooperation with the people of Afghanistan, especially its continued cooperation in the fight against the coronavirus disease (Covid-19).
According to Afghanistan watchers, the Taliban, with support of their handlers Pakistan, are seeking assurance from China to help them establish an emirate in Afghanistan lest US has second thoughts on the Sunni group after reports of large numbers of civilian casualties.
The US has already declared that it will leave Afghanistan on August 31. “While Pakistan is trying to leverage its influence on Taliban to get close to revive its ties with the US, the Sunni Islamist group is piggybacking on Islamabad to strengthen its ties with China,” official sources said.
Blinken’s India visit comes just days after his deputy, Wendy Sherman, was in China. The Doval – Blinken meeting also discussed the forthcoming Quad summit in the US in October. While India, US and Australia are all for an early October summit in Washington, Japan is still to confirm the date in October due to general elections in the country.
The two leaders exchanged views on contemporary and futuristic issues related to regional and global security, official sources said.
Earlier in the day, Blinken’s second day of the two-day visit to India, the US secretary of state held a meeting with “civil society leaders” which may cause some concern to the Indian government because of the presence of some representatives of Dalai Lama which might be frowned upon by China.
Inter-religious relations, freedom of the press, farmers protests, love jihad violence and minority rights were part of the discussion in the meeting with the civil society leaders Blinken met on Wednesday morning.
Sources said Tibet was not directly raised during the meeting, but the lack of progress in China’s dialogue on the issue was discussed at the round-table which included Geshe Dorji Damdul, the Delhi-based Director of Tibet House. While representatives of the Dalai Lama and the Central Tibetan Authority or “government in exile” have met with U.S. diplomats in the past, the presence of Damdul in the meeting with Indian civil society with the U.S. Secretary of State in Delhi is a first.
In his opening remarks, Blinken spoke of “great challenges” for all democracies in the world, particularly India, and the U.S. where the U.S. Congress has been holding Committee hearings on the January 6 attack on the Capitol House by pro-Trump protesters. Speaking to the group, Blinken said the India-U.S. relationship was one of the “most important” in the world whose people were “connected by shared values”.
“The Indian people and the American people believe in human dignity and equality of opportunity, the rule of law, fundamental freedoms, including freedom of religion and belief,” Blinken said in remarks released to the media, in which he called these freedoms the “fundamental tenets of democracies like ours” and said India and the U.S. were “democracies in progress” who discussed such issues as “friends.”
“We believe that all people deserve to have a voice in their government and be treated with respect no matter who they are,” Blinken added. The Modi government’s response to recent protests and dissent were part of the discussion that followed.
A photograph of the meeting tweeted shortly after showed constitutional lawyer Menaka Guruswamy, Inter-Faith foundation founder Khwaja Iftikhar Ahmed and representatives of the Ramakrishna Mission, as well as Baha’i, Sikh and Christian NGOs present at the meeting with Blinken and U.S. Charge d’Affaires Atul Keshap.
During the 45-minute discussion, Blinken received perspectives from the various representatives on the status of religious freedom, including the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) passed by the Modi government and anti-conversion (love-jihad) laws passed by some States, which have drawn international criticism. Other current issues, including the arrest of journalists and the recent revelations of a list of journalists and activists believed to be under surveillance using Israeli Pegasus software, were also discussed. In addition, the problems of farmers protesting at Delhi’s borders over the agriculture reform laws passed last year were also part of the conversation, sources said.
Blinken is scheduled to meet the prime minister Narendra Modi and the external affairs minister S Jaishankar before leaving for Kuwait later in the evening.