India Re-thinking on Keeping Kabul Diplomatic Mission Open: Sources

Manas Dasgupta

NEW DELHI, Aug 14: With the Taliban closing in on the national capital of Kabul, the Indian government on Saturday started consultations on the future of its embassy staff in Afghanistan amidst moves by other countries to fly out their diplomats stationed in the war-torn country.

Among the options being learnt to be under consideration of the government was to temporarily scale down its operations at the Kabul embassy and fly out the staff if the situation warranted even though Taliban leaders are learnt to have assured the foreign missions that they would not harm the embassies and diplomats after taking over Kabul.

The meetings on Saturday in New Delhi came amidst reports that the Taliban has taken territory around 50 km from Kabul, while Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani said he was discussing how to “remobilise” the Afghanistan National Defence and Security Forces (ANDSF) to protect the capital and other cities.

According to sources, security assessments had earlier been in favour of keeping the Indian Embassy in Kabul fully operational, after consulates in Kandahar and Mazar-e-Sharif were closed and Indian staff flown out.

The Indian embassy has also been flooded with visa requests from Afghan citizens, and families with links to India, which will need to be processed by Embassy staff, which is another factor in the decision process, said the officials.

On Thursday, MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi had said there were “no plans” to evacuate staff from Kabul, the single remaining Indian mission that was operational in Afghanistan. Indian Ambassador Rudrendra Tandon is also in Kabul at present heading the mission, and officials have been keen not to send any “panic signals” that could compromise security as well.

However, as the Taliban have made advances on several provincial capitals in the past two days, U.S., U.K. and Canada have decided to move their embassy staff out, and are sending supplementary security forces to Kabul to ensure a smooth exit. By Sunday evening the U.S. will have flown in about 3,000 soldiers for the effort, while the UK is sending about 600 troops.

According to media reports, European countries like Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands have decided to close their embassies, while others like Finland and Sweden are scaling back the presence of their diplomats. Germany and France have also begun to fly out their staff from Afghanistan, despite assurances from a Taliban spokesperson that the group would “not target embassies or diplomats”.

In addition U.S., U.K. and other embassies belonging to NATO countries are expected to relocate some skeletal staff to the Kabul airport compound, and maintain diplomatic outposts there even if the city is overrun. This will mean that the security personnel levels at the diplomatic “Green Zone” in Kabul would be considerably lower, an official said.

As a result, officials in the MEA, MHA and the National Security Council Secretariat are reviewing contingency plans in the event of a forcible takeover of Kabul by the Taliban, or if violent clashes break out in the capital.

A former Indian diplomat who had served in the Afghan embassy believed that while the security of Indian personnel was of “paramount importance,” the timing of the decision was also needed to be taken very carefully.

“There is a dilemma of any hasty decision which will be very debilitating in terms of the morale. Recent U.S. intelligence reports providing timelines for the fall of Kabul have been a cause for panic already. There is also the consular angle and the need to meet the demand for visas for many friends of India,” he said.