IDDF Director meets Afghan Charge d’ Affaires, discusses India-Afghan ties 

The International Dialogue and Diplomacy Foundation’s (IDDF) team led by the Director Dr Omair Anas, met the Chargé d’Affaires of the Embassy of Afghanistan, Mufti Noor Ahmad Noor, at the Embassy of Afghanistan in New Delhi on August 12. The meeting was held to discuss IDDF’s proposal for a high-level international academic conference titled “India-Afghanistan Relations in a Changing Global Economy and Security Order.” 

IDDF’s vision is clearly to move beyond the traditional security-centric framing of India-Afghanistan relations to examine and improve the bilateral relationship within the broader transformation of Asian and global economic and geopolitical structures. The discussion centered on these lines. IDDF outlined the proposed conference’s key thematic focus areas, including:

1. Assessing the historical evolution and contemporary state of India-Afghanistan relations
2. Analysing India’s evolving diplomatic, economic, humanitarian, and strategic engagement with Afghanistan.
3. Exploring opportunities for bilateral trade, investment, development cooperation, education, healthcare, technology, and capacity building.
4. To examine Afghanistan’s potential role as a bridge connecting South Asia with Central Asia and wider Eurasia.
5. To assess regional connectivity initiatives, including the Chabahar route, International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC), Central Asian corridors, and other emerging transregional transportation networks.
6. Discussing further Afghanistan’s economic reconstruction and its potential integration into regional and global markets.
7. And, to create a sustained platform for dialogue among Indian and Afghan academics, researchers, diplomats, policymakers, business representatives, and members of the strategic community.

Both parties exchanged their perspectives and experiences over the course of the meeting. The response was positive, and the Afghan side welcomed the proposal. Mufti Noor Ahmad Noor to the conference concept and expressed readiness to continue the conversation at a follow-up meeting to be hosted at IDDF’s office in New Delhi, where both sides intend to chart a further course of action to take the initiative forward.

Dr. Omair Anas conveyed and emphasised that India, too, seeks to improve relations with Afghanistan and is willing to pursue cooperation in select areas, reinforcing the sense of mutual openness that characterised the meeting.

Mufti Noor Ahmad Noor stressed that his engagement with New Delhi was not, and will not be, shaped by external considerations but rather reflects a deliberate commitment to confidence-building with India in its own right. He spoke of his desire to see Afghanistan’s foreign policy orientation shift away from a preoccupation with geopolitics toward a greater emphasis on geoeconomics. He further added that he hopes the world would come to understand Afghanistan on its own terms, rather than continuing to view the country primarily through the lens of the United States.