The talks between India and the United States in New Delhi this week were obviously multi-dimensional. Yet, at the core of these were Afghanistan and China. Matters linked to the Quad and Indo-Pacific as also human rights figured prominently in the talks. The visit by US secretary of state Antony Blinken took place at a time when Afghanistan is passing through a major political transformation and the government there is tottering in the face of a massive push by the Taliban to seize power there. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said there was convergence of views on the way forward in Afghanistan when the two sides discussed the matter. The backing from the US for the Afghan government is crucial even as Americans and NATO have pulled out their troops and abandoned their bases there. The Taliban’s prominent faction is backed by Pakistani ISI. The two put together, its lethality against India and Afghanistan is unpredictable. The Taliban claims to be closer to seizing power; but, at the same time, aerial bombings on the militants have killed hundreds.
What adds to this lethality of the Taliban, vis-à-vis India, is also the close link that it is establishing with the Chinese. Taliban’s chief political negotiator Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar reached up to foreign minister Wang Yi this week in its first formal engagement with the Chinese, and perhaps succeeded in pulling down the government led by Ashraf Ghani. A mix of Pakistan, Taliban and China is a prescription for serious trouble for India. The huge investments that India has made in Afghanistan to strengthen goodwill between the two nations, over decades, might now come to naught. How the evolving scenario would impact the militancy and terrorism in the Sub Continent and their impact on the Indian side of Kashmir are anybody’s guess. At the same time, China has its own problems of Islamic militancy in its western sector.
Mechanisms to counter the Chinese designs in the region are of equal importance to both the US and India. The four-nation alliance of Quad involving the US, Japan, Australia and India is principally aimed at checking Chinese designs in the Indo-Pacific region. While Blinken discussed human rights and other aspects too and put across the US views vis-a-vis CAA and issues related to minorities, these involve a sense of understanding and corrective steps would follow. His meeting with a representative of the Dalai Lama has sent out the right signals to the Chinese.
