The external affairs ministry on Thursday confirmed that two of its officials had held a bilateral meeting with Taliban representatives in Moscow on October 20 but refused to say whether India accepted the “joint statement” issued by the Russian foreign ministry after the meeting of the Moscow format that day.
The Joint Statement of the Participants in the Moscow Format Consultations on Afghanistan, Moscow, had advocated taking into account the new reality in Afghanistan irrespective of recognition of the Taliban government by the international community.
This is the first time New Delhi has commented on India’s participation at the Moscow format meeting on Afghanistan where two officials of the foreign ministry met a delegation led by Afghanistan’s deputy Prime Minister Maulvi Abdul Salam on the sidelines.
That such a meeting had taken place was announced by the Taliban on October 20 itself but India had remained officially tight-lipped although sources had confirmed the engagement.
As to what was discussed at the bilateral meeting, external affairs ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi’s response on Thursday was: “There was a discussion. There is nothing more to say about it for now.”
To another direct question on whether India accepts what was written in the joint statement, the spokesman said: “We participated in the event. This event was hosted by Russia. It was an important event. It achieved a lot of important milestones in discussions…. It was issued as a statement. I have nothing further to say in terms of either questioning it or accepting it.”
Asked if India was a signatory to the statement, Bagchi’s response was: “Does it have signatures? I leave it at that.”
Sources indicated that India was not comfortable with the joint statement’s formulation that “further practical engagement with Afghanistan needed to take into account the new reality, that is the Taliban coming to power in the country, irrespective of the official recognition of the new Afghan government by the international community”.
Given its close association with Russia and the need to be part of the discussion on Afghanistan, India apparently does not want to publicly contest the joint statement that some claim is more a chairman’s summary of the meeting.
But Moscow continues to advocate that line. The secretary of Russia’s Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev, said at the Delhi Security Dialogue on Wednesday that the Moscow format had laid a good foundation to determine the position of member countries regarding dialogue with Afghanistan.