Top Afghan diplomat set to visit India next week, says New Delhi

By Anadolu staff

ANKARA (AA) - Interim Afghan Foreign Minister Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi is all set to visit New Delhi next week, the first such visit by any top Afghan diplomat since the return of the Taliban to power in August 2021.

Muttaqi has been granted an exemption by the UN Security Council Committee for travel to New Delhi, Indian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said during a news conference in the Indian capital on Friday.

The top Afghan diplomat will pay a week-long visit to India on Oct. 9-16, said Jaiswal, who did not reveal the agenda of the trip.

New Delhi closed its embassy in Kabul after the fall of the West-backed regime in Afghanistan, whose fall led to the return of the Taliban, now ruling the war-torn nation as an interim administration.

However, the Indian Embassy resumed operations with a “technical team” in 2022, and in the recent past, India has directly engaged the interim administration.

In May this year, Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar held his first direct conversation with Muttaqi.

Before the phone call, India sent its first high-level delegation led by Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri to meet with Muttaqi in Dubai in February this year.

Last year, an Indian delegation visited Afghanistan for a series of high-level meetings with Afghan officials.

The bilateral trade between Afghanistan and India climbed to $890 million last year.