New Delhi
3 April 2010
India is not reaching out to the Taliban in Afghanistan. It will wait for the proposed
campaign of the US-led forces in Taliban birth place Kandahar "to gather momentum"
before taking a stand on the much-talked about issue of reintegration of or reconciliation
with Taliban.
The Taliban are antagonists, not protagonists, in the situation obtaining in that country,
sources familiar with India's engagement of Afghanistan said, reiterating India's
aversion to distinction between moderate or reconcilable Taliban and extremist or
hardcore Taliban.
New Delhi will not like to hazard a guess on how the negotiations with the Taliban will
progress or what its outcome will be as it believes it is too early to take a view on that. In
the interim, it hopes that the focus will equally be on strengthening the Afghan National
Army.
The situation in the region was discussed in recent telephone conversations between
National Security Adviser Shiv Shankar Menon and his American counterpart Gen James
Jones and Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao and US Undersecretary of State for Political
Affairs William Burns.
The conversations took place soon after the US - Pakistan strategic dialogue concluded
in Washington in March. The American side is understood to have told India that it does
not want to "outsource" the process of re-engaging Taliban, to Pakistan.
For its part, India maintains that Pakistan should not be controlling the switches insofar
as the unfolding situation in Afghanistan is concerned.
India is certain that it its role in Afghanistan will not be "diluted" and it is strengthening
the security of its personnel there. There are about 3,500 Indians engaged in projects but
not all of them are working for Indian government programmes.
Sources said the Indian medical mission in Kabul, which was the worst hit in the
February 26 attack, had to be scaled down as most of its members
were hurt and one was killed, but the missions in other cities were functioning.
"It is not a full stop to our developmental projects in Afghanistan," a source said.
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