Sergey Saenko, international observer

The Afghan government, formed last year by the Taliban (banned in Russia), assured India that it would fight al-Qaeda (banned in Russia) and other extremist groups threatening the country, including from neighboring Pakistan. . This was reported not so long ago by the Indian newspaper Hindustan Times, citing sources following a visit of a delegation from India to Kabul.

It should be noted that this was the first visit of an official delegation from New Delhi to Kabul, where its members held meetings with the Minister of Defense in the Taliban government, Muhammad Yakub Mujahid, the Ministers of Internal and Foreign Affairs, Sirajuddin Haqqani and Amir Khan Muttaki, respectively. During the talks, the top leadership of the Taliban movement promised the Indian government that they “will not allow terrorism against third countries from their territory and will fight terrorist groups based in Pakistan,” the newspaper quoted an unnamed source as saying. At the same time, the Taliban promised India to intensify the fight not only against the anti-Indian groups Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Toiba and Hizbul Mujahid (organizations banned in Russia) operating from Pakistan, but also with separate attacks al-Qaeda terrorists.

Without a doubt, these assurances of the Taliban were positively received by the members of the Indian delegation, since anti-Indian groups, primarily Jaish-e-Mohammed, led by Masud Azhar, cause a lot of trouble to official New Delhi. For example, the Indian side accuses Azhar of many years of subversive activities, including organizing a terrorist attack in Kashmir three years ago. Yes, on May 1, 2019, Masood Azhar was listed by the UN Security Council as an international terrorist, but this did not make it any easier for India, since he is still at large and hiding in Pakistan, from where he carries out his terrorist activities.

It should be noted here that the Afghan-Indian consultations in Kabul took place after the national security adviser to the Indian Prime Minister Ajit Dowal took an active part in a meeting on regional security in Dushanbe in May of this year. Speaking at a forum in the capital of Tajikistan, he said that New Delhi will continue to support the people of Afghanistan and nothing will change this approach based on the special historical relationship between the two neighboring countries.

“India has historical and civilizational ties with Afghanistan. India has always been with the people of Afghanistan and has concentrated in recent decades on supporting infrastructure, communications and providing humanitarian assistance to this country. New Delhi has been and remains an important participant in the [settlement] process in Afghanistan. The special relationship with the people of Afghanistan will shape India’s approach for centuries, and nothing can change that,” Doval was quoted as saying by the Indian newspaper Business Standard.

In addition, at a meeting in Dushanbe, Ajit Doval called on his colleagues from Russia, China, Iran and the Central Asian (CA) republics to increase Afghanistan’s ability to counter terrorism and extremism. He stressed that it was absolutely necessary to do so, given the continuing difficult situation in that country.

This, in particular, is stated in the just-published new UN report on the situation in Afghanistan. Thus, the document notes that Al-Qaeda is once again increasing its activity, operating freely in this country, and also forming the most powerful cells on the African continent, which makes the organization the most dangerous long-term threat. This was reported on July 22 by the London-based independent news portal Middle East Eye.

With the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan, al-Qaeda is once again gaining ground in a number of regions, potentially once again making the infamous terrorist group the world’s No. in Russia). Both of these organizations, as well as a number of other extremist groups, are actively operating in the “hot” spots of the planet and countries neighboring Afghanistan.

ISIL reached “the peak of its power” in 2014-2015. At present, the group has lost control over large areas of Iraq and Syria, but despite this, according to various estimates, from 6 to 10 thousand militants of the organization still remain in these two countries. And if ISIS is considered by experts as a current threat, then Al-Qaeda may again become the leader of the “global jihad” in the long term with the threat of another wave of destabilization and violence both in the Middle East and in Africa, where it has recently been most active. is expanding its activities.

In this regard, the promises of the Afghan authorities to wage an uncompromising fight against al-Qaeda deserve special praise. And the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), for example, can help the Taliban in this. The fight against terrorism was just discussed at the XIII summit of this association in September last year under the chairmanship of India. Recall that the meeting was supposed to be held in New Delhi in a face-to-face format, but the COVID-19 pandemic made its own adjustments to the summit, and as a result, it was held via videoconference, which, in general, did not prevent its successful and fruitful work. The fight against terrorism has become one of the main topics of the BRICS summit.

Speaking at this forum, Russian President Vladimir Putin also touched upon the topic of Afghanistan, where the Taliban seized power the day before. The Russian leader, in particular, noted that “the withdrawal of the Americans and their allies from Afghanistan has led to a new crisis situation, and it is not yet clear how all this will affect regional and global security.” “The withdrawal of the United States and its allies from Afghanistan has led to a new crisis, and it still remains unknown how this will affect regional and global security,” the Russian leader said at the time.

As you can see, President Putin was right – the situation in Afghanistan is still tense, and terrorist organizations such as Al-Qaeda and IS have not stopped their activities and threaten neighboring countries. This primarily applies to India and the states of Central Asia, which is the underbelly of Russia. It is for this reason that Moscow is concerned about the activities of various terrorist groups on the territory of Afghanistan.

It is no coincidence that in this regard, due to the threat of terrorism emanating from Afghan territory, at the beginning of this year, India and the Central Asian states agreed to create a joint group on Afghanistan. This was announced by the Deputy Foreign Minister of India Rinat Sandhu at the end of the India-Central Asia summit, which took place online in January of this year. The summit was attended by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the presidents of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

The meeting participants reaffirmed the importance of UN Security Council Resolution 2593, which unequivocally requires that the territory of Afghanistan not be used for hiding, preparing, planning or financing terrorist acts, and calls for concerted action against all terrorist groups.

It would be nice if these correct words did not remain on paper, but were put into practice …