External affairs minister S Jaishankar will visit Tajikistan in the week to participate during a key meeting on Afghanistan and hold talks with counterparts from several countries, including Iran, on the rapidly evolving situation within the war-torn country.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will virtually join the summit of heads of state of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) on Citizenship Day , while Jaishankar is about to represent India within the meeting on Afghanistan of heads of state of SCO and therefore the Russia-led peace Treaty Organization (CSTO) an equivalent day.
Jaishankar will hold several bilateral meetings while within the Tajikistan capital of Dushanbe during September 16-17, including together with his new Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir Abdollahian, people conversant in developments said on condition of anonymity. he’s also expected to satisfy Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov.
Abdollahian, who assumed office last month, was set to visit India on Monday but deferred his visit because he will meet Jaishankar in Dushanbe, the people said. A fresh date for Abdollahian’s visit is yet to be fixed though he’s expected to visit New Delhi soon.
Chinese secretary of state Wang Yi and Pakistani secretary of state Shah Mahmood Qureshi also will be in Dushanbe, though there was no word on whether Jaishankar would meet them. The people cited above ruled out the likelihood of a gathering with Qureshi in sight of the strained ties with Pakistan.
High-ranking delegations from 17 countries and therefore the refore the secretary generals of SCO and CSTO are gathering in Dushanbe for the summit and the meeting on Afghanistan. CSTO may be a military alliance of Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.
Jaishankar’s meetings on the margins of the SCO Summit are going to be a chance to match notes on the rapidly evolving situation in Afghanistan and therefore the way forward, especially in sight of India’s security concerns regarding Pakistan’s role within the country and its military establishment’s close ties with the Taliban.
Since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan on Assumption , India has asserted that Afghan territory must not be used for terrorism or anti-India activities. it’s repeatedly expressed concern about the shortage of inclusiveness of the “dispensation” in Kabul while indicating it’s in no rush regarding the popularity of the Taliban regime.
Iran has kept open its mission in Kabul and continued interactions with the Taliban leadership, though it’s its own security concerns regarding Afghanistan, including the well-being of the Shia Hazara minority.
Jaishankar discussed things in Afghanistan during a call with Abdollahian on September 1. A readout from Iran’s foreign ministry had quoted Abdollahian as saying that the “international community, including regional nations, must join hands to defuse the crisis in Afghanistan”. He added that it had been Iran’s policy to “support the formation of an inclusive government in Afghanistan made from all Afghan ethnic groups”.
The readout quoted Jaishankar as saying that “Iran and India got to continue consultations on Afghanistan”.
The people cited above added Russia too had informed the Indian side in recent meetings that there should be no rush in recognising the Taliban regime. This was a message conveyed by Nikolay Patrushev, secretary of Russia’s Security Council , at a gathering with senior Indian security officials in New Delhi on September 8, and in President Vladimir Putin’s interventions during discussions at a virtual Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa (Brics) Summit the subsequent day.
