Picture : Twitter / ANI
India and the United States are closely watching Pakistan’s actions in Afghanistan. In the limited engagement that India has had with the Taliban, the new Afghan rulers have indicated that they would be reasonable in addressing New Delhi’s concerns, said Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla.
“Obviously, like us, they’re also watching carefully and we have to watch Pakistan’s actions with a fine tooth comb,” he told a group of Indian reporters at the end of his three-day official visit to Washington DC adding that the US will have a wait-and-watch policy with regard to how the situation evolves in Afghanistan.
India also has a similar policy. “That doesn’t mean you don’t do anything. It simply means that you have to… the situation is very fluid on the ground, you have to allow it to see how it evolves. You have to see whether the assurances that have been made publicly are actually maintained on the ground, and how things work out,” he said.
“Our engagement with them (the Taliban) has been limited. It’s not that we have (had) a robust conversation. But for whatever conversation we’ve had so far, they’ve been sort of. At least, the Taliban seem to indicate that they will be reasonable in the way they handle this,” Shringla said.
He was responding to a question about the recent meeting that India’s Ambassador in Qatar had with a senior Taliban leader in Doha.
“In our statement, we have said that we have told them that we want them to be cognisant of the fact that there should be no terrorism that emanates from their territory directed against us, or other countries; that we want them to be mindful of the status of women, minorities and so on so forth. And, and I think they have, also, you know, made reassuring… from their side,” he said.
