A senior Taliban leader and deputy head of Taliban’s office in Doha, Qatar, Sher Mohammed Stanekzai, in a carefully scripted statement that he read out in Pashto in a 46-minute video message broadcast on Aug. 28 on the group’s social media platforms and Afghanistan National Television (RTA/Mili TV), said the Taliban wished to have good political and economic ties with India, including continuing the air corridor that was operational under the previous regime. Air corridor is the main trade route between India and Afghanistan since Pakistan, located in between, denies the land corridor between the two countries. As a further gesture of goodwill towards India, Taliban officials visited the Afghan-India Friendship Dam in Herat Province, also known as the Salma Dam, built by New Delhi.
India was concerned since the Taliban’s rapid takeover of Afghanistan, following the Biden Administration’s announcement that it would withdraw all troops by Aug. 31. The previous Taliban regime that ruled Afghanistan between 1996-2001 was openly hostile to India and was close to Pakistan.
