Trump's New Tango

As the US engages Taliban for a truce, India remains wary

- R. Prasannan

There is chance for a truce in the Afghan conflict, and India isn’t exactly happy. Not that India is a war-monger, nor is India seeking to fish in the troubled waters of the Kabul, the Kokcha, or the Oxus which is now called Amu Darya.

Much water has flowed down these rivers since President Donald Trump sent more troops to Afghanistan, and promised a new strategy to resolve the conflict without spelling out what it would be. Pakistan had been urging the US, which has about 15,000 troops in Afghanistan, to engage the Taliban, or at least those Taliban leaders whom Pakistan would certify as good Taliban.

Finally, a US president, who had only in January announced a cut in the military aid to Pakistan unless Islamabad took more action against terrorist groups that targeted Americans, appears to have listened. Breaking from the Barack Obama-crafted policy that any peace process in Afghanistan would have to be “Afghan-led, Afghan-owned” (meaning that any talks would have to be between the Kabul regime and the insurgents), Trump authorised US diplomats to talk directly to the Taliban.

Trump’s feelers, and then his diplomats, have been in touch with the Taliban, and the initiative led to a temporary ceasefire for three days around Eid-ul- Fitr, marking the end of Ramzan in June, when Taliban and Afghan troops exchanged greetings, took selfies, and then went back to fighting with renewed vigour. The Taliban have since been bombarding the strategic city of Ghazni in a bid to capture it. Currently, 229 of the country’s 407 districts are controlled by the Kabul regime, 59 by the Taliban and the remaining 119 districts are contested.