Afghan foreign minister’s visit to India shocked the world
India is beset with numerous problems with all of its neighbors. China, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Nepal and even distant Maldives are troublesome. China and Pakistan are directly deadly. But in the middle of anti- Indian foreign enemies, suddenly there is a cool breeze from Afghanistan, which is not our direct neighbor. But Afghanistan is a neighbor of Pakistan and serious border problems have erupted between them. More than 2000 years ago, the great Indian Chankya said: An enemy’s enemy is a friend “. The visit of Afghan Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Muttaqi to India shocked the world and more importantly, put Pakistan in a mental coma.
Afghanistan is a unique country. There was Hinduism first for hundreds of years ago. Gandhari, the wife mother of Duryodhana came from Gandhar or today’s Kandahar. Then came the total domination of Buddhism for centuries. The biggest Buddha statues were at Bammiyan, which were sadly bombed during the first Taliban government. Then came Islam. But the nature of Afghans did not change. They were brave and fierce warriors and never allowed foreign invasion.
In 1842, the British arrogantly sent an army of 16,500 soldiers to conquer Kabul, capital of Afghanistan. The Afghans killed 16,499 and allowed only one to live to take back to story to the British. Imagine the horror the British got form Afghans. Since then, the Afghans defeated the Americans, Russians and anyone else.
Taliban comes to Delhi: Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Muttaqi reached Delhi on October 9, 2025. The visit was very successful and now India and Afghanistan will now have normal good relations. The biggest trauma was for _Pakistan, which has groomed the Taliban and expected the Afghan government to be its slave from 2021. Pakistan wanted to use Afghanistan to attack India and use Afghanistan soldiers to wage war. But now Pakistan and Taliban Afghanistan are enemies.
In foreign relations, countries become friends and enemies based on their own interests. The great British Prime Minister Lord Palmerstone said 240 years ago: “Nations have no permanent friends or enemies. Only permanent interests “. Afghanistan ditched Pakistan and became friendly with India. Pakistan thought that Taliban Afghanistan were its slaves.
The shock to Pakistan of Taliban foreign minister visiting India was so much that they immediately bombed parts of their capital Kabul. Immediately, the Afghan Foreign minister Muttaqi scolded Pakistan from Indian soil.
Background of Afghanistan:
Afghanistan is 30% the size of India with only 4 crore people. Afghanistan is not a border neighbor India. Afghanistan is land-locked and its access to the sea is through Iran or Pakistan. India is building Chabahar port in Iran to get access to Afghanistan and removing its dependence on Pakistan.
Afghanistan had a King till 1973, when he was overthrown by Russian conspiracies. Since 1973, there has been constant war in Afghanistan, after the overthrow of the King, who kept peace. Russia occupied Afghanistan till from 1979 to 1989, when they were kicked out by Afghan rebels. Then USA occupied Afghanistan from 2001 to 2021. Taliban took over in Afghanistan from August 2021.
There was jubilation in Pakistan that it now controls entire Afghanistan. Pakistan gave mining licenses in Afghanistan to China and literally acted as if Afghanistan was part of their country. But things did not go as planned by Pakistan. The bullying and looting of Afghanistan by Pakistan angered Afghan nationalists and the Taliban slowly started drifting from Pakistan. But Pakistan thought that Taliban will never become friendly with India.
Pakistan forgot Afghan history:
About 2000 years ago, Afghanistan was the center of Buddhism. Afghanistan was a tribal society and remains a tribal society even today. But around 700 years ago, Afghanistan became an Islamic nation. Afghanistan has a history of never being defeated by foreign armies. Only Maharaja Ranjit Singh of Punjab briefly controlled Kabul in 1838.
Dispute between Pakistan and Afghanistan:
The British were all powerful in the Indian sub-continent in 1893 and simply drew a line between Pakistan and Afghanistan called the “Durand Line “. That took away a large area of Afghanistan and included it in then British India. Now Afghans want the Durand Line to be scrapped, and they want their land back. It is dispute of 140 years and a big problem for Pakistan. If Pakistan gives it back to Afghanistan, it will lose nearly 20% of their land. Pakistan is in an unhappy situation.
Afghans friendly with India through history:
But right form 2021, Taliban showed that it was independent and will not listen to Pakistan. Pakistan felt that Taliban Afghanistan will not go anywhere. But the Pakistani forgot that the Afghans will be independent and got fed up with Pakistani bullying and looting.
In the last year, Afghanistan started making friendly gestures to India. When Pakistani terrorists attacked Pahalgam, Taliban Government condemned it and shocked Pakistan. Lot of secret talks were held and now we have friendly relations with Taliban Afghanistan.
But historically, India was always liked by Afghans since they had no quarrel with us. The Afghans a4re deep people and they made an assessment based on history of Indians. Whenever there is trouble in Afghanistan, lakhs of Afghans sought refuge in India, and they liked the secular country.
A few days ago, Pakistan Defense Minister Khwaja Asif said it correctly in Pakistan parliament: the Afghans were friends with India yesterday, today and tomorrow “.
The future cannot be predicted. Taliban has become a nightmare for Pakistan. How long Pakistan will suffer we can’t say. But it is a comical sight to see their erstwhile “Taliban dependants““rebelling and siding with India. Presently, India has got a big boost since Pakistan acquired a new and dangerous enemy.
(Author is a Political and Economic Analyst based at New Delhi)