New Delhi, Oct 10 : Former Indian diplomats on Friday welcomed Afghanistan Foreign Minister Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi's visit to India, highlighting the historic relations between both countries.

Former Indian Ambassador to Bangladesh, Veena Sikri termed Muttaqi's visit to India "very important" and welcomed New Delhi's upgradation of Technical Mission in Kabul to the status of Embassy in Afghanistan.

Speaking to IANS, Sikri said that India has a special relationship with people of Afghanistan as they come here to study, meet people and do business. She also recalled how India offered help to Afghanistan following the recent earthquake.

"Foreign Minister of Afghanistan Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi's visit is very important. Afghanistan is our neighbouring country. It is a member of SAARC. The relations between India and Afghanistan are centuries old and the Afghan people have a special relationship with the Indians. They have always come to study, to meet people and to do business herre. The friendship between people of India and Afghanistan is centuries old. That's why the people (of Afghanistan) are with us. Taliban government came for the second time. Following this, all the nations cut their ties with the Taliban. In present time, only Russia is a country that has recognised the Taliban government. Despite this, the relations between India and the people of Afghanistan have continued to prosper and the developmental and infrastructural work continued. India continues to help them in building schools, hospitals, and sending humanitarian aid," said Sikri.

"Recently, an earthquake occurred in Afghanistan and we were the first to help them. There were tents, medicines, blankets, everything. We gave them food and water. We know that the people of Afghanistan will be waiting for this. So, to do all this, to develop infrastructure and to provide humanitarian aid, our small technical mission was there, through which, the talks with the Taliban government, arranging all this, was done and that's why our relations kept growing," she added.

Earlier in the day, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar held a meeting with Muttaqi in New Delhi where both ministers discussed India's support for Afghanistan's development, bilateral trade, territorial integrity and independence, people-to-people ties and capacity-building besides several other issues.

Recalling recent meetings between Taliban and India, Sikri said, "Recently, there was a Moscow format meeting on Afghanistan. Foreign Minister Muttaqi participated in the meeting for the first time as a member. And India was also there in that meeting. EAM Jaishankar had also spoken on the telephone with Muttaqi. After that, our government has arranged a bilateral visit. It has also been decided that India will now have an Embassy there. This is a very important step, through which our relations with the Afghan government and the Afghan people will now move on a good path."

On the impact of Muttaqi's visit on India's foreign policy and relations with the neighbouring countries, the former diplomat responded, "In foreign policy, a nation always prioritizes its own interests. First of all, we will look at the interests of India. Decisions are taken on the basis of what is in our interest and in the interest of our people... When their foreign minister is in Delhi, Pakistan is bombing Afghanistan. Pakistan is dropping bombs on the people of Afghanistan. So, the people there will see and understand who is their friend really.:

Former diplomat Anil Trigunayat also welcomed Muttaqi's visit to India and noted that the people-to-people connection between Kabul and New Delhi has been strong regardless of which regime is in power. He spoke about India's assistance to Afghanistan over the years, which included building parliament buildings, dams and other infrastructure.

"We should refer to him as Afghanistan's Foreign Minister rather than the Taliban's Foreign Minister, because he is representing his country. Afghanistan and India share deep, historic, and civilizational relations, and the people-to-people connection between our countries is very strong, regardless of which regime is in power. India is the only country which has made the biggest contribution for the reconstruction and development of Afghanistan and for their capacity building. You may recall that even when Afghanistan was under the US control, India provided almost USD 3 billion in assistance, including major projects like dams, parliament buildings, and other infrastructure.

"The people of Afghanistan see this very well, recognise it and understand it. Even when there was a change of power there, the people (Taliban) there had told the Indians that you do not need to go. But, we had problems with Pakistan, ISI and their people as they were against India. Our Embassy was also attacked in which ISI was involved. Taliban members see this and at the end of the day, Taliban members are Afghans....Earlier, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri met Foreign Minister Muttaqi in Dubai. Bilateral relations, regional developments, counter-terrorism, capacity building are important and Afghanistan needs it right now."

Former Indian diplomat K P Fabian called the visit "important" for India and Afghanistan and welcomed government's decision to hold talks with Taliban. He recalled how international community decided not to recognise Taliban after they seized power in Afghanistan in 2021.

"Diplomacy means engaging with those who are in power. You may not like them or their ideology. For example, Taliban, they were denying the women in Afghanistan their rights, they shouldn't dress in particular way, they shouldn't study higher than a particular education level and all that. That is absolutely unacceptable. But, the correct thing to do is to engage with them and tell them, listen, what you're doing is wrong. In fact Afghanistan was in serious difficulties at that time, food wise, foreign exchange wise, medicine wise and you know that we have Indira Gandhi Hospital for children there. We should make a public offer to Afghanistan telling them that we are prepared to revamp that hospital, send doctors and medicines and equipment provided those Afghan women, who come and work there, should have no restrictions whatsoever on the time of their movement, how they are dressed, etc, said Fabian."

/IANS