‘India has to see how best to protect its interests in Afghanistan’

New Delhi: India will have to see how best to protect its interests in Afghanistan and make the “best” of a difficult situation, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said on Wednesday while describing New Delhi’s conversation with the group as “reassuring”.

In an interactive session at an industry chamber, he said the Taliban recognised that India has contributed greatly to Afghanistan’s development in the last 20 years and wanted it to provide humanitarian assistance to the country.

Shringla said India established some contacts with the Taliban in Doha and Moscow, adding the group want New Delhi to reestablish its embassy in Afghanistan.

At the same time, Shringla reaffirmed the need for an inclusive negotiated political settlement to the Afghan crisis and said that the territory of Afghanistan should not be used to the detriment of any other country.

Shringla said the rapid fall of the Ashraf Ghani government and the Taliban’s “very swift” takeover of Kabul left India in a slightly uncomfortable position as the developments in that country were “unexpected”. “We have also established some contacts with the Taliban, both in Doha as well as in Moscow... I think the Taliban in our conversation with them has been very reassuring,” he said. “They recognised that India has contributed greatly to the people of Afghanistan, that our developmental projects over the last 20 years have greatly contributed to Afghanistan’s development,” Shringla said. -(PTI)