Oct 01,2023: The embassy of Afghanistan in India, which owed its allegiance to the former West-backed government, has announced its closure, saying it would cease operations starting from October 1.
The Afghan embassy’s statement on Saturday said it wanted to reach an agreement with the Indian government to ensure that the interests of Afghans living, working, studying and doing business in India are safeguarded.
Afghans account for around one-third of the nearly 40,000 refugees registered in India, according to the United Nations’ refugee agency. But that figure excludes those who are not registered with the UN.
“There has been a significant reduction in both personnel and resources available to us, making it increasingly challenging to continue operations,” the statement said.
The closure comes more than two years after the Taliban government stormed back to power triggering the collapse of the government of President Ashraf Ghani in the wake of the US withdrawing its troops after 20 years of war and occupation.
“It is with profound sadness, regret, and disappointment that the Embassy of Afghanistan in New Delhi announces this decision to cease its operations,” the embassy said.
The decision was taken due to lack of “crucial support” from India which has hampered the embassy’s capacity to carry out the embassy’s duties, read the statement.
There were also shortcomings in meeting the expectations to best serve Afghani citizens due to “the absence of a legitimate functioning government in Kabul”, read the statement, referring to the Taliban administration.
The closure follows reports that the ambassador and other senior diplomats had left India in recent months, with infighting among those remaining in New Delhi. But the embassy rejected speculations regarding internal infighting among its staff, stressing that these were “unfounded” rumours.
India will take control of the embassy in a caretaker capacity, it said.
At the time of publication, India’s foreign ministry did not issue any statement in response to the announcement.
No country officially recognises Afghanistan’s new government, but acknowledge the Taliban as the de facto ruling authority.
This has left many Afghan embassies and consulates in limbo, with diplomats appointed by the former government refusing to cede control of embassy buildings and property to representatives chosen by the Taliban authorities.
India has not recognised the Taliban government, which seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021. It evacuated its own staff from Kabul ahead of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan two years ago and no longer has a diplomatic presence there.
Yet, New Delhi is keen to retain ties with the country where its regional rival Pakistan wields considerable influence. Indian envoys have previously met Taliban representatives in Doha, the capital of Qatar, where the group has an office.
Last year, India sent relief materials, including wheat, medicine, COVID-19 vaccines and winter clothes to Afghanistan to help with shortages there.
In June last year, India sent a team of officials to its embassy in Kabul.
Before the Taliban took control, India provided Afghan security forces with training and military equipment but had no troops on the ground. It was also the region’s largest provider of development aid to Afghanistan.
Oct 01,2023: The populist party of former Prime Minister Robert Fico that wants to stop military aid to Ukraine and is critical of the European Union and NATO has won Slovakia’s election, results showed on Sunday.
SMER-SSD party scored 23.3 percent, beating the centrist Progressive Slovakia (PS) that garnered 17 percent of the votes, the Slovak Statistics Office said early on Sunday after completing the count of 99.98 percent of the votes from some 6,000 polling stations.
Saturday’s vote was a test for the small Eastern European country’s support for neighbouring Ukraine in its war with Russia.
The 59-year-old Fico has promised that Slovakia, one of Europe’s biggest donors to Ukraine as a share of its gross domestic product (GDP), will not send “a single round of ammunition” to Ukraine and has called for better relations with Russia.
The country of 5.5 million people created in 1993 following the breakup of Czechoslovakia has been a staunch supporter of Ukraine since Russia invaded last February, donating arms and opening the borders for refugees fleeing the war.
With no party winning an outright majority, the party with the largest share of the vote gets the first chance to form a coalition and the composition of any government is likely to be dependent on half a dozen smaller parties.
Fico, who served as prime minister from 2006 to 2010 and again from 2012 to 2018, is likely to become prime minister if he is able to get the support of the left-wing Hlas (Voice) party, which came in third with 14.7 percent votes.
Another potential coalition partner, the ultranationalist Slovak National Party, a clear pro-Russian group, received 5.6 percent.