Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said that India’s inclusion in ‘Afghan Quad’, comprising Russia, China, Pakistan, and Iran, would be the ‘right step’
India to Join ‘Afghan Quad’?
Amid India’s growing engagements with Taliban, Russia has called for India’s inclusion in the grouping on Afghanistan, which comprises China, Pakistan, Iran and Russia. Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said, “It is more important to strengthen trust within SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organisation), within the format that is currently working on Afghanistan (Russia, China, Pakistan, Iran). We are confident that the inclusion of India would be the right step.”
This proposal comes days after the meeting between the Indian foreign secretary and the acting foreign minister of Afghanistan in Dubai. At the meeting, foreign secretary Vikram Misri assured support for Afghan refugees being forced out of Pakistan as well as development projects in Afghanistan. India has been part of the Moscow format meeting on Afghanistan. India opened a ‘technical office‘ in Kabul in 2022. During the last two years, engagement with the Taliban has increased.
While China has emerged as the greatest security threat to India in recent years, Pakistan has been a traditional adversary with whom India has fought full-fledged wars. The India-Pakistan relations are essentially frozen over Pakistan’s support to the secessionist movement in Kashmir and its support anti-India terrorism.
Lavrov said, “There is mutual interest in practical cooperation in combating terrorism. Pakistan suffers from this too. The fight against terrorism requires joining efforts with your Afghan neighbors, with India, with all SCO members, because Central Asia, Afghanistan and Pakistan are used by “bad people” to plan and implement their criminal plans.”
“The SCO has an anti-terrorist structure. It works well. There is an exchange of information. Considering that the financing of terrorism is seriously “tied” to drug trafficking (a form of organized crime), we have been promoting the initiative for several years to create a single center to combat new threats, including terrorism, drug trafficking, organized crime, and human trafficking. This year we will begin to implement this decision,” said Lavrov.
The Afghan Quad comprising Russia, China, Iran, and Pakistan last held a meeting in September 2024 on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) session. In their joint statement in Sept. 2024, the Afghan Quad member-states tacitly acknowledged Taliban and indirectly took a swipe at the West. They said that “should serve as a platform for international cooperation rather than geopolitical competition” and “acknowledged the efforts of Afghanistan’s de facto authorities to combat ISIL-Khorasan”.
