India is likely to host a national security advisor-level global conference to discuss the prevailing situation in Afghanistan in Delhi in November.
The in-person meeting, which will be the first-of-its-kind dialogue to be hosted by New Delhi, is expected to be held from November 10 to 11.
The format of the meeting will be similar to the regional security conference held in Iran in 2019, news agency ANI reported.
Several regional countries including the US, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan are likely to participate in the conference.
Pakistan and China are also expected to be invited to the meeting. India has reportedly extended an invitation to Pakistan’s NSA Moeed Yusuf.
India had planned to hold the conference even before the Taliban seized control of the country. However, the proposed meeting was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the political crisis in the war-torn country after the Taliban’s takeover.
India is also scheduled to attend the Moscow Format dialogue in Russia on October 20 where representatives of the Taliban will also be present.
In August, New Delhi and the Taliban had their first official engagement in Qatar, Doha where Indian envoy Deepak Mittal, met Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai, the head of Taliban’s political office
The meeting that took place at the Embassy of India in Doha at the request of the Taliban side was the first formal high-level engagement between the two sides.
Last month, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said that, the new Afghan rulers, in the limited engagement that India has had with the Taliban, have indicated that they would be reasonable in addressing New Delhi’s concerns.
