Ajit Doval, the national security advisor, is said to have conducted unannounced meetings with the FIA director, followed by a formal meeting with Russia’s intelligence leader.
A Pakistan-backed temporary government has been established, including Prime Minister Mullah Muhammad Hassan Akhund, who is on the UN’s blacklist of terrorists.
Both India and the US kept the visit of CIA head William Burns, who was en way to Pakistan, under wraps. The meeting with Russian Federation Security Council Secretary-General Nikolay Patrushev, however, was notified in advance by India’s external affairs ministry.
On Tuesday, Burns is said to have visited with Doval at National. Neither country acknowledged the visit, but neither refuted press stories about it.
The visit follows Pakistani espionage head Lt Gen. Faiz Hameed’s high-profile visit to Kabul over the weekend, which was followed by a full-scale attack on Panjshir opposition forces, whose spokesmen said Pakistani planes were deployed against them.
A claim disputed by the Afghan National Resistance Front (NRF) — the militants declared the formation of a caretaker administration, with the old guard holding the majority of important posts after Panjshir valley was seized.
Four members of the Haqqani network, which has tight links to Pakistan’s deep state and has previously targeted both the US and India, are part of the new ruling coalition. Acting Prime Minister Hassan Akhund, like numerous other senior government officials, is an UN-designated terrorist.
The two parties addressed the possibility of a Russian-Indian cooperative effort to create circumstances for the beginning of a peaceful resolution process based on intra-Afghan discussion during the Doval-Patrushev meeting.
According to a statement from the Russian embassy, the two teams agreed to synchronize Russia’s and India’s efforts to an Afghan solution in global frameworks. The conference was attended by members from India’s external affairs ministry, defence ministry, and security agencies.
“The importance of defining parameters of the future state structure of Afghanistan by the Afghans themselves, as well as the need to prevent the escalation of violence, social, ethnic and confessional contradictions in the country, were emphasised,”
Later, Patrushev met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar. Patrushev has been Secretary of the Security Council since 2008. In a tweet, Jaishankar claimed he and Patrushev had extremely fruitful conversations about Afghanistan.
Jaishankar, speaking at a seminar on Afghanistan co-hosted by the US and German foreign ministries, said: “Resumption of travel out of Kabul is a priority. The use of Afghan soil to promote terrorism in any manner by any country is unacceptable. The Taliban must live up to its declarations to that effect. The world should not countenance interference by external players, especially those intensifying violence at this difficult time. Our collective approach should be guided by UNSC resolution 2593.”
Resolution 2593, passed by the United Nations Security Council late last month during India’s rotating chair, asks for ensuring that Afghanistan’s territory is not used for terrorism against any nation, boosting humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, and respecting human rights. Russia and China abstained because their worries, particularly concerning terrorist organisations targeting them, were not addressed.
