OTR: Taliban Visit to India Sparks Debate on Diplomacy and Women’s Access

When Amir Khan Muttaqi, the Taliban’s foreign minister, arrived in New Delhi for talks earlier this month, it was immediately clear that this was no routine diplomatic visit. It marked the first trip by a senior Taliban leader to India since 2021, signalling a cautious but significant shift in the usually reclusive group.

India, which had closed its Kabul mission after the Taliban takeover in Kabul, announced plans to reopen its embassy to restore limited engagement with Afghanistan. It was a move closely tied to the shifting power equations in the Afghanistan–Pakistan region.

Divya Malhotra, senior researcher with the Centre for National Security Studies in Bangalore, explained that for years, Pakistan was the Taliban’s principal patron. “For India and the Taliban, Pakistan’s growing military assertiveness is both a common pressure point and a shared denominator, driving a rare tactical and strategic convergence,” she said.

“The world still remembers September 2021, when the then Pakistan Security chief Faiz Hameed flew to Kabul to meet the new Taliban leadership and then PM Imran Khan hailed the Taliban for ‘breaking the shackles of slavery.’ Interestingly, both men are now in jail. Delhi, meanwhile, watched uneasily as two decades of investments, goodwill and strategic depth in Afghanistan seemed to vanish overnight.

However, the tables have turned,” Malhotra added.

Against this complex backdrop of shifting alliances and emerging fault lines, the optics of Muttaqi’s visit to India take on a new significance.

As the cameras were setup and the mics checked, the story took an unexpected turn. Reports emerged that female journalists were not allowed to attend the first press conference.

Within hours, the incident triggered strong criticism across media circles and social media. Editors and senior reporters voiced disappointment, and what began as a formal diplomatic event quickly became a conversation about access, optics and inclusion.

The Press Room Moment

The backlash online was swift and visible. From newsroom statements to trending hashtags, questions poured in about why women journalists had been barred from an event held on Indian soil.

Acknowledging the outrage, a second press conference was organised the very next day, where women reporters were invited and participated freely. Taliban foreign minister Muttaqi later described the earlier exclusion as a “technical misunderstanding.”

The gesture to correct the situation was welcomed, but the symbolism stayed. For many in the Indian press corps, it became a moment of reflection on how access defines participation in a democracy.

“The exclusion of women journalists, though problematic, must not be judged out of context. India is opening diplomatic channels, not endorsing Taliban policies, and as a leading democracy in the Global South, it recognises the importance of upholding its ethical commitments while carefully balancing cultural sensitivities with democratic values,” says Malhotra.

What the Visit Signals in the Subcontinent

This visit from the Taliban was about more than ceremony. For India, re-opening its embassy in Kabul was a carefully chosen move to engage without endorsement. For the Taliban, it offered visibility and an opportunity to project diplomatic intent. But visibility does not translate into legitimacy.

India’s approach remains measured, focusing on practical areas like trade, connectivity and humanitarian assistance rather than political recognition. For New Delhi, this outreach represents more than symbolic engagement; it signals a calculated diplomatic shift shaped by strategic necessity.

“That Delhi would go ahead and publicly invite a senior Taliban leader, something once unimaginable, reflects a clear embrace of realpolitik, where strategic imperatives temporarily outweigh normative hesitation. By hosting the Taliban foreign minister, India has shifted from a purely soft-power approach to open public diplomacy which may include security cooperation and intelligence sharing, albeit covertly,” notes Malhotra.

This pivot is taking shape against a turbulent regional landscape, where Pakistan’s actions and the Afghan Taliban’s assertiveness are redrawing old fault lines.

The regional backdrop added further weight to the visit. In the same week, border clashes broke out between Afghanistan and Pakistan, following Pakistani airstrikes and retaliatory fire by Afghan forces. Both sides reported casualties and temporarily closed crossings.

Malhotra explains that Pakistan’s ties with the Taliban have frayed amid repeated skirmishes along the Durand Line - the 2600 kilometre land border between Afghanistan and Pakistan - and growing military assertiveness, while Pakistan’s recent misadventures in Jammu and Kashmir have pushed Kabul and Delhi to recalibrate their ties.

For India, these shifting dynamics open new diplomatic space to re-engage. For the broader region, they highlight how quickly alliances can shift and how fragile stability remains.

India’s Tightrope: Pragmatism, Credibility and Risks

India’s relationship with the Taliban has always been cautious. In the past, New Delhi backed republican governments that opposed the Taliban, viewing them through a security lens. Today, that lens has widened. India is choosing dialogue as an instrument of pragmatism, seeking to protect its interests and sustain influence in Afghanistan’s reconstruction.

This engagement has sparked debate at home. Some commentators, including popular Indian poet and lyricist Javed Akhtar, questioned whether welcoming Taliban representatives risks softening India’s moral stance, especially on women’s rights and education.

Yet India’s foreign policy has long balanced ideals with realism. The government has made it clear that this outreach does not imply recognition but reflects a desire to keep humanitarian and development ties alive. It is a delicate balance between protecting strategic space and staying true to India’s democratic values.

The press-room controversy was a small but telling reminder of that balance. For India, hosting such a visit was about dialogue, but it also meant standing by principles of openness and equality.

If India can use diplomatic engagement to encourage inclusive governance, educational opportunities and economic stability for ordinary Afghans, it can quietly strengthen peace in the region. But if engagement drifts into silence on rights and access, its moral credibility could come under pressure.

Why It Matters for New Zealand

From New Zealand’s vantage point, South Asia can feel distant, yet what happens there often resonates across the world. India’s approach demonstrates how democracies can engage with difficult realities without abandoning their values. It also reminds us that dialogue, backed by humanitarian focus, can often achieve more than isolation.

New Zealand, which has contributed to Afghanistan’s reconstruction and supported education initiatives over the years, can relate to India’s decision to maintain people-to-people connections while navigating complex politics. In both cases, the underlying belief is that development and education remain the surest paths to long-term stability.

The Taliban foreign minister’s visit to India has reopened old debates about engagement, legitimacy and the role of women. It shows that speaking to a difficult partner does not mean agreement; it means choosing dialogue over distance.

 -Asia Media Centre