Pak-Afghan Border clashes: Amir Khan Muttaqi does not know history who won wars in Afghanistan

DND Report: Afghan Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi is in India on his eight-day official visit that is reportedly the longest ever visit of any country’s Foreign Minister in New Delhi. Muttaqi will meet Indian NSA Ajit Doval today, October 10, 2025.

This visit indicates India’s strategic move to put more pressure on Pakistan after losing the May War, although India has long been using Afghan soil for cross-border terrorism against Pakistan. Now, New Delhi will play more against Pakistan while sitting in Kabul as both the countries have decided ‘enhancing security arrangements and training of intelligence officials.

International relations experts believe that Muttaqi’s visit marks a potential shift in India’s Afghanistan policy from ‘covert to overt’ because India had been engaged in Kabul even before the Afghan Taliban took over the country. However, both India and the Afghan Taliban were conscious about showing their deep-rooted strategic relations until January 2025, when the Biden Administration brokered their official strategic partnership.

This meeting symbolizes the Taliban’s legitimacy in New Delhi and India’s continuing engagement without formal recognition of the Taliban.

The visit may be considered a historic diplomatic development in South Asia and the outcome of the India-Afghanistan strategic partnership that was brokered by the Biden Administration just before handing over the Oval Office to President Trump. The U.S. administration under Biden had been providing funds and other kinds of financial support to the Taliban interim government, but President Trump halted financial assistance to the Afghan Taliban after coming into power.

The Afghan Taliban’s government has been recognized by Russia, while China is providing diplomatic space to them, and now India is sooner or later expected to recognize them. Meanwhile, they have bitter relations with Pakistan and Islamabad provides irrefutable information/data that the Afghan Taliban hosts, funds, and supports terror networks such as the TTP (Officially called by Pakistan as Fitna e Khawarij) to attack Pakistan’s forces.

Amir Khan Muttaqi landed in New Delhi on October 9, 2025. He will have a meeting with National Security Adviser Ajit Doval on October 10, 2025; will visit Darul Uloom Deoband (Saharanpur, UP) on October 11; will visit the Taj Mahal; and will meet Indian industrialists, traders, academia, and ministerial staff of health, education, industry, security, and Afghan students studying in India.

The Indian Ministry of External Affairs said that discussions on diplomatic relations, trade, security concerns, and the pursuit of international legitimacy will be top on the agenda of his eight-day visit and his meeting with Minister of External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar. It is pertinent to mention that India managed to get permission/approval for his travel from the UN Security Council travel ban list. Muttaqi has been listed under UNSC sanctions since January 25, 2001, subject to a travel ban, asset freeze, and arms embargo. On India’s request, the UNSC Committee (chaired by Pakistan, vice-chaired by Guyana and Russia) approved a travel exemption for his visit to India from October 9–16, 2025.

Muttaqi received full protocol as a visiting Foreign Minister at his arrival at New Delhi Airport, although India has yet to officially recognize the Afghan Taliban interim government. Indian media reported that his meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is not confirmed but likely because the UK PM will be in New Delhi during the same period, so Modi would be busy. Nonetheless, Modi has expressed his interest in meeting the Afghan Foreign Minister. It is pertinent to mention that the visit coincides with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s trip to India with the largest-ever British trade delegation, security officials, and cabinet members.

The Indian Ministry of External Affairs confirmed that his meeting with the Minister of External Affairs of India Subrahmanyam Jaishankar will focus on upgrading diplomatic relations to full embassies, expanding consular services, upgrading the Indian embassy in Kabul, and forming a joint diplomatic group that will focus on the security paradigm, including training intelligence officials, military personnel, police, and training in Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Afghan security officials.

Indian regional experts believe that the engagements are seen as a strategic necessity amid ‘evolving regional security dynamics.

In May 2025, Jaishankar called Muttaqi and had a detailed discussion when Muttaqi condemned the April 22 Pahalgam attack, which, according to available information, was actually a false flag operation India raised against Pakistan. During and after the May 2025 Pakistan-India four-day war, Afghanistan and Israel were the only two countries that openly supported India’s stance over the Pak-India war. Muttaqi’s earlier planned visit to New Delhi was cancelled due to visa waiver issues, although he wanted to travel to India just after the Pak-India war ended.

Regional experts believe that India’s strategic interests in Afghanistan remain significant and that India is engaging with the Taliban while distancing itself from old Afghan allies (Northern Alliance). They also believe that India-Afghanistan regional security arrangements will be perfect against Pakistan and would instantly harm Islamabad’s strategic interests in the region. Meanwhile, some experts urge India to wait for international consensus before formally recognizing Afghanistan because U.S. President Trump is already looking at Afghanistan-India contact ‘negatively’. They are of the view that India should keep providing ‘symbolic recognition in protocol terms’ without formal de jure recognition.

It is pertinent to mention that the Afghan embassy in New Delhi closed in November 2023; consulates in Mumbai and Hyderabad continue services, while the Indian embassy in Kabul, which closed in 2021, reopened partially in June 2022 with a technical team and intelligence team to keep an eye on regional developments while regular backchannel diplomacy is going on in a third country.