Foreign policy habitually lives in the uneasy space between moral conviction and hard-nosed calculation. States declaim universal values and, when expediency dictates, recalibrate. India’s recent outreach to Afghanistan’s Taliban-led authorities —most visibly the recent visit this month by Afghanistan’s Foreign Minister — provides a vivid case study of that tension. New Delhi’s meetings, the joint statement and promises of humanitarian and development cooperation, reveal a strategic logic; the press-room controversy over the exclusion of women journalists lays awkwardly bare the moral compromises that accompany realpolitik.

India’s rationale for engaging the Taliban is threefold and plainly pragmatic. First, Kabul matters to New Delhi’s security calculus: A stable Afghanistan that refuses to harbour, let alone unleash, anti-India militants is a strategic imperative, especially given the legacy of cross-border terrorism and the country’s historical and geographic proximity to Pakistan. Second, India has long-standing development footprints and people-to-people ties with Afghanistan, which was for years the largest recipient of our development assistance ($2.3 billion); keeping aid, infrastructure and consular channels open protects those investments and influence. Third, India’s engagement is a hedging strategy in a region where geopolitical rivalry is intensifying. Failure to keep channels open with Kabul would only cede space to Pakistan, China and others to deepen ties, undermine India’s interests and shape outcomes to their advantage.

Those considerations explain why New Delhi hosted Amir Khan Muttaqi, allowed him the use of the Afghan Embassy, negotiated logistics for upgraded consular facilities and reaffirmed humanitarian commitments — steps announced publicly in a joint statement after the meetings. Formal recognition did not follow, but our “technical mission” in Kabul........

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