India To Push Taliban For A More Inclusive Govt For Global Recognition

The Moscow Format talks held on Wednesday will see participation from the Taliban and 10 other countries including India. India has previously expressed its concerns and will once again underline the need for an inclusive government in Afghanistan. They will also seek consolidated efforts against the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.

The participating countries are expected to push the Taliban for a more inclusive government. Both Russia and India believe that the current Taliban government is not inclusive and it should not receive any recognition in its current state.

Moscow said a joint outcome document will be adopted following the talks, where both Russia and India expressed their concerns about the conduct of the Taliban in recent months which saw them trackback on promises made to women and minorities. D B Venkatesh Varma, India's Ambassador to Russia, told Russian daily Kommersant, "In the last several months, unfortunately, we have seen Afghanistan is a story of broken promises. Whether the Taliban will stand by their commitments and back words with deeds- we will wait and see".

Prior to the Moscow Format talks, there was a meeting on Tuesday of the extended troika where Russia, China, and Pakistan exchanged views on common security threats and expressed interest in helping Afghanistan with urgent humanitarian and economic assistance. Sergey Lavrov, Russian foreign minister though said that there were no talks on recognising the Taliban government and that Moscow was still prodding the Taliban to fulfill their promises. India will likely back Russia in the talks for a UN conference to provide humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan.

PM Modi in his G20 address called for urgent and direct humanitarian assistance and an "inclusive administration". India wants an enabling environment for non-discriminatory distribution of aid to the Afghan people before sending any aid.

The Taliban, on the other hand, is hoping for international recognition in the talks and will be represented by a delegation led by Abdul Salam Hanafi, second deputy of the prime minister.

Notably, the US did not participate in the troika plus meeting because it was "logistically difficult", but expressed its support.