It’s not often that a man on the United Nations’ sanctions list gets the red carpet rolled out for him in India. But that’s what happened in October 2025, as the Taliban’s foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, arrived in New Delhi for a six-day trip. It was the first time India had ever hosted a high-ranking member of the extremist group.
And Muttaqi’s visit wasn’t an aberration. Since the Taliban retook control of Afghanistan in August 2021, India has been slowly rebuilding ties with the new government. While New Delhi hasn’t gone as far as extending official recognition to the Taliban regime – only Russia has done that thus far – it announced plans to officially reopen its embassy in Kabul during Muttaqi’s meetings with Indian officials.
Why is India’s Modi government making nice with a group that practices one of the world’s most extreme versions of Islam, including banning girls and women from school and nearly all forms of employment?
In this video by Diplomat Asia, our YouTube channel, we discuss the recent warming of ties between India and the Taliban, why New Delhi’s approach to the Islamist fundamentalist group is so different this time around, and what that means for both Afghanistan and India.
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