India Hasn’t Changed Its Position On Not Recognising The Taliban: MEA

India said on Thursday that it hasn’t changed its mind about not recognising the Taliban government in Kabul. This came after reports that an Afghan foreign policy body had asked officials to take part in an online programme as part of the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) initiative.

The Afghan Foreign Ministry’s Institute of Diplomacy is said to have told officials in Kabul to sign up for the ITEC course that was going to be held at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Kozhikode.

At a press conference, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi also said that India does not send any note verbales to groups that New Delhi does not recognise.

A note verbale from the Indian embassy in Kabul about the course was mentioned in a letter sent by the Institute of Diplomacy to officials to tell them about the ITEC programme.

But Bagchi said it’s not possible to send such communication entities that aren’t known.

“Through what is called the ITEC programme, India has been helping developing countries all over the world build their own skills. He said, “This includes online classes.”

Bagchi said that these scholarship courses are taught by different Indian institutions and cover a wide range of topics.

“These classes are also open to people from Afghanistan and other countries.

“Both Afghans who live in India and Afghans who live in Afghanistan have taken part in these ITEC courses,” Bagchi said.

“Of course, you don’t have to go to India for the online courses,” he said.

The MEA spokesperson said that India’s position on the Taliban regime has not changed.

“We still feel the same way about how things are going in Afghanistan. I don’t think you should take anything from ITEC courses about that. We would never send a note verbale, which is a note between governments, to a group that is not recognised, he said.

India hasn’t recognised the Taliban government in Afghanistan yet, and it has been pushing for the creation of a government that includes everyone in Kabul. It has also been insisting that terrorist attacks against other countries can’t happen on Afghan soil.

India has been pushing for Afghanistan to get unhindered humanitarian aid so that the country can deal with its growing humanitarian crisis.

In June of last year, India re-established its diplomatic presence in Kabul by sending a “technical team” to its embassy in the Afghan capital.

After the Taliban took over in August 2021, India pulled its officials out of the embassy out of fear for their safety.

The ITEC is the Ministry of External Affairs’ most important platform for building up people’s skills.

ITEC is one of the oldest international institutions for building up people’s skills. It was started in 1964 and has trained more than 200,000 civilian and military officials from 160+ countries.

Building on India’s large and diverse network of higher education institutions and training centres with expertise in governance and development, the ITEC offers nearly 10,000 fully-funded in-person training opportunities through nearly 400 courses at 100 or more prestigious institutes each year.