The invitation from the Indian Embassy within the UAE to the performing Afghan Ambassador and Taliban envoy Badruddin Haqqani, for the Republic Day reception is “routine”, official sources mentioned, reacting to criticism that the Modi authorities is ‘normalising’ the Taliban regime, particularly these accountable previously for terror assaults on Indian missions. Badruddin Haqqani, the Charge d’Affaires on the Afghan Embassy in Abu Dhabi was previously a member of the Haqqani network, and believed to be an in depth affiliate of its heads, Taliban Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani and his father, Jalaluddin Haqqani.

Explaining the invitation for the reception to be held at an Abu Dhabi resort on January 26 , the sources mentioned that the invitation had gone out as a routine observe to all diplomatic missions accredited by the UAE authorities, aside from Pakistan (with whom India’s diplomatic ties are frozen). In addition, the Indian Embassy in Abu Dhabi addressed the invitation to the envoy of the Embassy of the “Islamic Republic of Afghanistan”, not the Islamic Emirate, and the sources identified that the Afghan Embassy in UAE nonetheless flies the Republic tricolour. India too has allowed the Embassy in Delhi, that was closed down in protest by the earlier Ambassador Farid Mamundzay, to be reopened by Afghan Consuls who’re extra engaged with the Taliban regime, however the flag on the embassy has not modified to the Taliban regime’s flag.

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The Haqqani community was held liable for a number of assaults on Indian missions in Afghanistan, together with the 2008 Kabul Embassy automobile bombing by which 58 folks had been killed, together with two senior Indian diplomats and two Indian safety forces personnel. The invitation to a member of the group, addressed as “His Excellency Badruddin Haqqani” that was reported on social media by Afghan journalist Bilal Sarwary raised eyebrows amongst the Indian diplomatic group, with one former diplomat, who requested to not be recognized, referring to it as “creeping recognition” of the Taliban. 

“This [invitation] is utterly against Afghans’ basic expectation of India as an emerging democratic power to protect and defend Afghans’ human rights and to support their growing resistance against the same terrorists who bombed the Indian Embassy in Kabul and killed and wounded many Indian citizens,” Afghanistan’s Ambassador to Sri Lanka Ashraf Haidari, who represents the Republic since earlier than the Taliban takeover in 2021, mentioned. “Afghans urge India to end any normalisation of the Taliban,” he added.

No nation has given recognition to the Taliban regime so far. However, in a number of international locations, together with Russia, China and Central Asian states, Taliban representatives have been accredited as Acting Ambassadors and the Taliban’s  black and white “Islamic Emirates” flag has been hoisted versus the Republic’s black, inexperienced and pink tricolour. In December 2023, China even accepted Taliban appointee Bilal Karimi as a completely accredited Ambassador, turning into the primary nation to take action.

The Ministry of External Affairs didn’t reply to a query on whether or not Indian embassies in Beijing, Moscow and different international locations would additionally invite the Afghan envoys accredited by host governments who’ve been appointed by the Taliban.

“The invite itself has caused confusion,” Kabir Taneja, a Fellow of the Strategic Studies Programme at Observer Research Foundation.  “The question is not about normalisation here, as Indian diplomats met Sirajuddin Haqqani in 2022, but why the need to invite Taliban envoy to a Republic Day event in UAE?” He famous, nonetheless, that the invitation marked a “continuation” of India’s engagement with the Taliban, “specifically at a time when they have an increasingly fractured relationship with Pakistan.”

The Taliban’s ‘Acting Foreign Ministry’  had changed the previous Afghan Ambassador to the UAE, Ahmed Sayer Daudzai, in October 2023 with Badruddin Haqqani, who had been posted to Abu Dhabi as First Secretary within the Embassy in 2022, Mr. Sarwary mentioned. At the time, the Taliban Foreign Ministry spokesperson had known as the UAE’s “acceptance of Mawlavi Badruddin Haqqani…an important development in the relations between the two countries”, indicating it expects that the UAE, one of many solely international locations to recognise the Taliban throughout its earlier reign from 1996-2001, will additional strengthen ties with the Taliban regime.