India, in the capacity as the chair for this month, has signed off on the statement and issued it.
The Taliban reference was dropped by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) from a paragraph in its statement on terrorist attacks near Kabul airport that called on Afghan groups not to support terrorists “operating on the territory of any other other country”.
After assuming the rotating Presidency of the United Nations Security Council for the month of August, India, in the capacity as the chair for this month, has signed off on the statement and issued it.
The UN Security Council’s position, in another statement on Afghanistan on August 16, a day after Kabul fell to the Taliban, was starkly different. Back then, it had warned that “neither the Taliban nor any other Afghan group or individual should support terrorists operating on the territory of any other country”.
India’s permanent representative at the United Nations till April last year, Syed Akbaruddin, pointed out the difference in the two statements and said “the ‘T’ word is gone”.
In diplomacy…
A fortnight is a long time…
The ‘T’ word is gone…Compare the marked portions of @UN Security Council statements issued on 16 August & on 27 August… pic.twitter.com/BPZTk23oqX
— Syed Akbaruddin (@AkbaruddinIndia) August 28, 2021
Foreign Minister Dr S Jaishankar, when he was questioned on August 19 about how India views and deals with the Taliban leadership, had said that it is still “early days”, adding the focus is on safety and security of the Indian nationals who are in Afghanistan.
The deadline to evacuate citizens from the war-torn country is August 31. However, India on Friday said that the exact number of its citizens still remaining there are unknown.
India has already evacuated its mission’s staff from Afghanistan, along with hundreds of Indian nationals, and refugees seeking asylum.
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