‘Didn’t involve travel to India’: MEA on invite to Taliban for online course

India on Thursday said there has been no change in the government’s position on not recognising the Taliban setup in Afghanistan following reports of a foreign policy institution in Kabul asking officials to participate in an online course under the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) programme.

A letter from the head of the Institute of Diplomacy under the Taliban foreign ministry had asked officials to register for the course being conducted by the Indian Institute of Management (IIM)-Kozhikode during March 14-17.

The letter had also referred to a note verbale or unsigned diplomatic correspondence from the Indian embassy in Kabul regarding the course but external affairs ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi dismissed the possibility of the Indian side sending such official correspondence to “entities that are not recognised”.

“India has been extending capacity-building assistance to developing countries across the world through what is called the ITEC programme. This includes online courses,” he told a regular media briefing.

These scholarship courses cover numerous topics and are conducted by different Indian institutions. These courses are also open to nationals of various countries, including Afghanistan, he said.

“A number of Afghan nationals, both based in India as well as in Afghanistan, have been participating in these ITEC courses. Of course, the online courses do not involve travel to India,” he added.

Bagchi emphasised that there has been no change in the Indian government’s stance towards the Taliban setup in Kabul.

“Our position on how we see developments in Afghanistan has not changed. I do not think anything should be read into ITEC courses vis-a-vis that. We certainly would not be issuing note verbales, which are inter-governmental notes, to entities that are not recognised,” he said.

ITEC is one of the oldest institutionalised arrangements for global capacity building and its programmes have trained more than 200,000 officials from more than 160 countries.

India re-established a diplomatic presence in Kabul by reopening its embassy in June last year. A small group of diplomats, known as a “technical team”, is currently present in Kabul though India is yet to decide on resuming support for development projects across Afghanistan.