• Source:JND
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Afghanistan foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi landed in the national capital on Thursday, in the first high-level trip from Kabul after the Taliban seized power following the collapse of the Ashraf Ghani government over four years back.

Muttaqi will hold extensive talks with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval during his six-day trip to India, news agency PTI reported citing people familiar with the matter. "Warm welcome to Afghan Foreign Minister, Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi on his arrival in New Delhi," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said on social media.

"We look forward to engaging discussions with him on bilateral relations and regional issues," he said. Muttaqi's engagements include a visit to the Darul Uloom Deoband seminary and the Taj Mahal, the people cited above said.

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Taliban minister gets special permit to travel to India

The Afghan foreign minister was scheduled to visit New Delhi last month but it was called off in view of a travel ban that he faced under UN Security Council (UNSC) sanctions. The UNSC committee on September 30 has approved a temporary exemption to the travel ban allowing Muttaqi to visit New Delhi from October 9 to 16, according to a statement by the UN.

The exemption paved the way for the Afghan foreign minister to visit India. The UN Security Council had slapped sanctions against all the leading Taliban leaders, and they need to secure a waiver for foreign travel.

Echoes of 1999: India's engagement with Taliban

In a striking parallel to a pivotal moment in 1999, India is once again engaging directly with Taliban leadership. Back then, during the hijacking of Indian Airlines Flight IC-814, External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh travelled to Kandahar for tense negotiations with Taliban Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil.

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To free the hostages, India controversially released three militants, including Masood Azhar—the founder of Jaish-e-Mohammed—who would later orchestrate devastating attacks on Indian soil.

Fast-forward to today: On October 9, 2025, Acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi arrived in New Delhi for the first high-level Taliban visit since their 2021 takeover of Afghanistan.

Over the next six days, Muttaqi is slated to meet Jaishankar to discuss counterterrorism, trade, and regional stability—topics laced with irony given India's lingering grievances over cross-border terrorism.

Why is it a big setback for Pakistan and China?

This outreach unfolds against a backdrop of shifting South Asian dynamics, where China has emerged as a key mediator to thaw frosty Pakistan-Afghanistan relations.

Once staunch allies, Islamabad and the Taliban have clashed over the past two years, with Pakistan repeatedly accusing Kabul of sheltering the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and enabling deadly incursions across the Durand Line.

Beijing's trilateral dialogues, most recently in Kabul on August 20, 2025, have nudged both sides toward de-escalation, even as underlying tensions simmer.

For India, hosting Muttaqi signals a pragmatic pivot: balancing security concerns with economic opportunities in a volatile neighborhood.

(With inputs from agency)