India to attend Afghanistan peace deal signing between US-Taliban in Doha

Amid speculations of India's role in the Afghanistan peace deal, emerging developments have claimed that India's Ambassador to Qatar Kumaran will attend the signing of the landmark deal between the US and Afghan Taliban in Doha on Saturday, official sources informed PTI on Thursday. The deal with lead the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan, who invaded the country 18-years-back citing war on terror. 

PTI sources notified that an invitation was extended by the Qatar government for the ceremony wherein the deal will the signed. This is the first time, since the inception of the peace deal, that India has been officially a part of the process involving the Taliban. India has been a key stakeholder in the peace and reconciliation process in Afghanistan.

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In a significant move, India had sent two former diplomats in "non-official" capacity to a conference on the Afghan peace process in Moscow in November 2018. The conference organised by Russia was attended by a high-level Taliban delegation, representatives of Afghanistan as well as from several other countries, including the US, Pakistan, and China. This came right after the US President abruptly had called it a "dead deal."

Major powers such as the US, Russia, and Iran had been reaching out to the Taliban as part of efforts to push the stalled Afghan peace process. India has been supporting a national peace and reconciliation process which is Afghan-led, Afghan-owned and Afghan controlled. India has also been maintaining that care should be taken to ensure that any such process does not lead to any "ungoverned spaces" where terrorists and their proxies can relocate.

Modi-Trump discuss peace deal

Donald Trump, during his two-day visit to India, notified that he had a conversation with PM Modi on the Afghan Taliban peace deal, adding that everyone was "happy" about it. "I spoke to PM Modi on it. I think India would like to see it happen. We are pretty close. Everybody is happy about it," said Trump during a press conference.

The US President on Monday said that the Taliban is “tired of fighting” and hopes to reach a deal. Trump also said that he would sign the peace truce if one is eventually reached in Afghanistan. The US President's comments came after a partial implication of the deal took effect on February 22 with the Taliban, US, and Afghan forces agreed for a week-long “reduction in violence."

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(with PTI inputs)