The world is still reeling under the blitzkreig takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban. A twenty-year regime propped by US troops was gone in 20 days with Kabul falling on Sunday, August 15.

For India, the most important development is that Pakistan and China were the first two countries to recognise and welcome the new Taliban government.

Does that mean a more hostile neighbourhood for India? The second development is the worry that the US is now withdrawing from global affairs into grand isolationism. How can that impact the global political economy and India's position?

To discuss these issues, CNBC-TV18’s Latha Venkatesh spoke to Talmiz Ahmad, Former Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Oman and the UAE; Narendra Jadhav, Member of Parliament - Rajya Sabha and an Economist; Pramit Pal Chaudhuri, senior editor of Foreign Affairs at Hindustan Times.

On Kashmir issues and India’s concern, Chaudhuri said, “I think the real issue will be the sense of accomplishment by the ISI in Pakistan. They have been to some degree on the backfoot for the past several years, partly because of Pakistan's economic problems and our closer relationship with the United States and events somewhat like the Pulwama bombing, which have made them a little wary of pushing the envelope regarding India.”

“But now they have ended what they have always been scared of a two-front war with a hostile Afghanistan and a hostile India. The Taliban is an organization, which they have obviously not only back, was created by Pakistan, but was obviously, carefully nurtured by them. So the sense that perhaps now is an opportunity to start pushing the envelope again, especially with the situation in Kashmir and article 370’s abrogation, then this is an opportunity for them. That is I think the biggest concern that India will have.”

On the global issues, he said, “The global will be the fact that there is still as per the latest UN report on terrorism, at least 1,000 Al-Qaeda still in Afghanistan and working very closely with the Taliban, they meet regularly with them. The Taliban have been hostile to the Islamic states, but they have been very welcoming as they were in the past to Al Qaeda. So both America, the West, to a lesser extent, as Al Qaeda doesn't target India that much will be looking at the new Taliban regime and saying did you learn any lessons or are you going to go down that same path? So you are going to get a lot more airport checks over the next six months anytime you fly overseas. Pentagon recently gave a briefing to the Senate saying counter terrorism terrorist threats globally will be rising because of this.”

On Americans withdrawal, Ahmad said, “That agreement the American rented into in Doha was not worth the paper it was written on. It was always clear that the Americans were desperate to get out. They just needed a fig leaf. The Doha agreement provided that fig leaf. Within a few weeks, there were reports that the Taliban had never given up their Nexus with the Al Qaeda and Al Qaeda has been a robust presence as far as their ranks are concerned. That link has never been snapped, the Americans knew that.”

“The second point was about the violence, they said, okay, we won't attack American targets and their allies but we will continue attacks on the Afghan government. The Americans countenance that and several 100 Afghans were killed, just within a few weeks of that agreement. So let us not pretend that a serious or solemn agreement was entered into. It was a way it was an opportunity for the Americans to pack up their bag and run as fast as they could, as they have done so well, in the past, in the recent past, they did it in Vietnam, did it in Iraq, did it in Libya, and now they are doing it in Afghan.”

For full interview, watch accompanying video...

Also Read: US withdrawal from Afghanistan: Will anything collapse?

(Edited by : Bivekananda Biswas)

First Published:Aug 17, 2021 8:06 PM IST