India, Pakistan, Afghanistan will attend Moscow format conference on Afghanistan

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India is sending an official team to attend the Moscow process of talks on October 20 that will include the Taliban government’s Deputy Prime Minister.

The MEA has confirmed that India will send a senior official to the Moscow format conference on Wednesday, which includes delegations from Afghanistan, India, Iran, China and Pakistan. Taliban officials announced that a delegation led by its Deputy Prime Minister Abdul Salam Hanafi would attend the meeting.

The Moscow meet will be the first time India is sending an official to attend a conference that includes the Taliban, after the fall of Kabul on August 15. The acceptance is significant because the SAARC Foreign Minister’s conference, due to be held in September on the sidelines of the UNGA this year, was put off, reportedly due to India’s objections to Pakistan’s demand to allow a Taliban representative attend the meeting on Afghanistan’s behalf.

Although no foreign government has recognised the Taliban as the official government, several, including India are in talks with them, mainly through their political office in Doha, while at least six nations, including Russia, China, Iran, Pakistan, Turkey and Qatar maintain embassies in Kabul.

Mr. Hanafi will travel to Moscow next week, and went on a one-day trip to Uzbekistan on Saturday to “discuss trade and transit relations”, Taliban’s Deputy Minister for Information and Broadcasting Zabihullah Mujahid said in tweets.

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