India will have important role in dealing Afghanistan situation, says UK's Dominic Raab

The UK government on August 17 stated that India would have an important role in dealing with the situation in Afghanistan with the Taliban’s takeover as it was a prominent partner in the region and the chair of the United Nations Sanctions Committee. British foreign secretary Dominic Raab said that the way to move ahead considering the situation unfolding in Afghanistan is to involve the creation of some form of international “contact group” in order to ensure Afghanistan could never be utilised to launch terror attacks against Britain or its allies. 

“I think it's incredibly important in all of this to be working with a wider group of not just like-minded countries but partners that can exercise maximum influence. And that will mean, difficult as it is, to engage with China and Russia as well as our closer partners like India," Mr Raab told the BBC.

Raab admits Taliban’s advances ‘took us by surprise’

Raab made the remarks after he was criticised for going ahead with his vacation amid the worsening situation in Afghanistan and it completely fell over the weekend. The UK Foreign Secretary returned to London on August 16 before the emergency Parliament session on August 18. He also admitted that the global community was “caught off guard" and that the magnitude of the advances of the Taliban "took us all by surprise".

"Now it is about how we use every lever we have at our disposal to try and moderate the influence of the regime that comes in. The crucial thing will be working in the UN Security Council as a permanent member, using our G7 presidency, using not just with our NATO allies but with the key neighbouring and regional players and that will include difficult partners - from China and Russia, to Pakistan; India is going to be very important in this," said Raab.

Further, referring to the measures planned in dealing with the Taliban regime, Raab said, “Through concerted coordination on things like sanctions. India is very important in the UN, it chairs the Sanctions Committee. China is a difficult partner for the UK but we have a common interest as permanent members of the Security Council in working together on Afghanistan."

IMAGE: AP