Arindam Bagchi, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesman tried to downplay the online training of employees of the Taliban’s ministry of foreign affairs.
Bagchi said that no diplomatic note had been exchanged between the Taliban and India regarding this training.
The Indian official emphasised that New Delhi’s position in relation to the Taliban has not changed.
According to a letter from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Taliban, which was obtained by Afghanistan International, the Ministry of External Affairs of India had scheduled to hold a short-term online training course for the employees of the Ministry from March 14 to 17.
Bagchi described the purpose of this online training course to help build capacity in different countries, including Afghanistan.
He said, “These scholarship courses are open to nationals of various countries, including those from Afghanistan, and I think a number of Afghan nationals both based in India as well as in Afghanistan have been participating in these ITEC courses. Of course, the online courses do not involve travel to India.”
The spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs of India, who tried to downplay the political importance of this training course, said that these courses should not be considered as a change in the position of the Indian government regarding the Taliban.
He said, "Our position on how we see developments in Afghanistan has not changed… We certainly would not be issuing note verbales, which are intergovernmental notes to, you know, entities that are not recognised.”