Aug 29, 2021: According to some analysts, the Taliban’s return to power two weeks ago has dealt a major diplomatic blow to India, with the South Asian giant being described as one of the region’s “most disadvantaged” players as a result of the regime change.

Within weeks, the Taliban took control of the country in a spectacular military sweep, as US-led foreign forces pulled out 20 years later, ending the country’s longest overseas war.

President Ashraf Ghani, with whom New Delhi had close ties, fled the country when the Taliban besieged the capital, Kabul.

The sudden collapse of the Western-backed government in Kabul led to an unprecedented exodus of diplomats, foreign aid workers, as well as Afghans who worked for Western countries and feared retaliation by the Taliban.

India was among the countries that closed its mission in Afghanistan and repatriated its staff and citizens. It is still trying to evacuate some citizens in a state of chaos at Kabul airport.

India has already evacuated more than 800 people from Afghanistan since its capture on August 15 by the Taliban under its Mission Operation Devi Shakti.

On Thursday, it could evacuate only 24 of its citizens along with 11 Nepalese nationals in a military aircraft from Kabul. not the more than 180 people it had planned as others could not reach the airport to board the aircraft.

Last year, during the 2020 Afghanistan Conference, Indian Foreign Minister Subramanian J. Shankar had said that no part of Afghanistan had been “untouched” by “more than 400 projects” that India had given to all 34 provinces of the country.

Bilateral trade between the two countries had also increased significantly over the years and reached $1.5bn in 2019-2020.

According to Michael Kugelman, deputy director of the Asia Programme at the Wilson centre, “India has gone from being Kabul’s closest regional partner to one of the region’s most disadvantaged players in an Afghanistan context.”

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