Afghan EAM Muttaqi clubs visits to Moscow and New Delhi, smart move to disallow Pak hurdles

New Delhi: Afghanistan's foreign minister Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi has clubbed his visit to Russia and India next week in what was a smart move disallowing Pakistan any chance to block his travel exemption at the UN.

Pakistan as chair, UNSC 1988 Taliban sanctions committee, could not block travel exemption of Muttaqi as it will also participate at the Moscow Format meet, which will be attended by Muttaqi as well.

Muttaqi will travel to Moscow on October 6 to attend the seventh round of the 'Moscow Format' talks at the invitation of Russian officials. For the first time, a Taliban delegation will participate in the Moscow Format meet as a member rather than a guest. This will be the first Moscow Format meet that Russia will be hosting after it recognised the Taliban government. Following his visit to Moscow, Muttaqi will travel to India, it is learnt.


India is also a participant at the Moscow Format meet on Afghanistan. In 2024, JP Singh, the then joint secretary of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), led the Indian delegation to the sixth meeting of the Moscow Format Consultations in Moscow. In this year's meet, the participants will share their views on engaging Kabul and India will be represented by an MEA official.


This will be the first time that a minister from Taliban will be visiting India, with Taliban 2.0 seeking to pursue foreign policy independent of Pakistan's diktat and expand ties with India. New Delhi has reciprocated since last year. Chabahar Port has been used to send aid.

Earlier, foreign secretary Vikram Misri met Muttaqi in Dubai, and held talks that focused on India's humanitarian aid to Afghanistan's health sector and for refugee rehabilitation. Speaking about the Taliban minister's visit, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said: "All of you would have seen the exemption granted by the UN Security Council Committee for the travel of Afghanistan's foreign minister to New Delhi from the 9th to 16th of October...We will keep you updated in this regard."

Muttaqi will meet external affairs minister S Jaishankar during his trip. This will be the second interaction between the two and the first in-person meeting. The two spoke for the first time on May 15 after 'Operation Sindoor'. The Taliban regime had condemned the Pahalgam terror attack.