Jaishankar meets Trump’s key aide in Washington
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar held talks in Washington with Mr Michael Waltz, US President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for the post of National Security Adviser.
India today asserted that its main focus immediately was to ensure that the Afghan soil was not used for terrorist activities directed against this country.
Responding to questions, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said a majority of Indians who were stranded in Afghanistan have been brought back to India though there were still some Indian nationals in the embattled country.
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His comments came two days after Indian Ambassador to Qatar Deepak Mittal held talks with a top Taliban leader in Doha.
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The spokesperson said India utilised the meeting to convey its concerns over the possible use of Afghan territory for anti-India activities and for bringing back home the remaining Indians from Afghanistan.
“We received a positive response,” he said referring to the meeting between Mittal and Taliban leader Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai.
On whether India would recognise a Taliban regime now that it was in touch with the Taliban, he said,” It was just a meeting. I think these are very early days.” On whether there would be more meetings with the Taliban in the coming days, he said he did not wish to speculate.
“I would not like to speculate on the future. I have no update to share on that,” he said.
On bringing back the remaining Indians from Afghanistan, the spokesperson said the matter would be revisited once the Kabul airport resumes operations.
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