India deploys 'technical team' in embassy in Kabul, sends IAF plane with relief material

The technical team had been sent in continuation of India’s historical and civilisational relationship with people of Afghanistan, the MEA said

After an earthquake killed at least a thousand people in Afghanistan, India on Thursday sent a military aircraft carrying relief materials to Kabul and deployed “a technical team” at its embassy in the country.

India deployed the ‘technical team’ 10 months after it had evacuated not only most of its citizens, but all its officials posted at its embassy in Kabul in the wake of the fall of President Ashraf Ghani’s government and Taliban’s return to power in August 2021.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) stated that the ‘technical team’ has been deployed to “closely monitor and coordinate the efforts of various stakeholders for the effective delivery of humanitarian assistance to the people” of Afghanistan.

“India, a true first responder,” External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar tweeted, after an Indian Air Force (IAF) aircraft landed in Kabul carrying relief materials for quake-hit people of Paktika and Khost province of Afghanistan. At least 1,000 people were killed and nearly 1,500 others were injured in the earthquake in the two provinces of Afghanistan on Wednesday. The quake also rendered thousands of people homeless in the country, which was already struggling with poverty and an acute food crisis.

Read | Survivors dig with hands after Afghanistan quake killing 1,000

Arindam Bagchi, the spokesperson of the MEA, said that the technical team had been sent in continuation of India’s historical and civilisational relationship with people of Afghanistan.

“Our longstanding links with Afghan society and our development partnership including humanitarian assistance for the people of Afghanistan, will continue to guide our approach going forward,” the MEA stated in a press release, without elaborating if the deployment of the technical team at the embassy in Kabul should be seen as a prelude to India sending diplomats and other officials to the capital of Afghanistan.

India earlier this month sent a delegation of officials, led by its senior diplomat J P Singh, to Kabul to oversee the delivery operations of India’s humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan. Singh and other officials had a meeting with Foreign Minister of the Taliban’s government, Amir Khan Muttaqi, as well as other officials of the militia's governance.

It was the first time New Delhi sent a delegation to Kabul after the Taliban returned to power, taking advantage of the withdrawal of forces by the United States and the other NATO nations from Afghanistan.

India had evacuated its envoy to Afghanistan, Rudrendra Tandon, and 175 other officials from Kabul on August 17, 2021 – two days after Ashraf Ghani’s government collapsed in the wake of a swift military campaign by the Taliban. India had also evacuated its officials posted in its consulates in other cities in Afghanistan in the weeks before the country was taken over by the Taliban.