WORLD

Amid the debates whether the Taliban will be recognised as Afghanistan's ruling government, India on Thursday said that it's not a matter of yes or no as the country is still monitoring the situation in the war-torn country. The government also said that India's immediate focus is to ensure that Afghan soil is not used for terrorist activities directed against it.

Answering a question on the roadmap of further meetings with the Taliban, the Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson, Arindam Bagchi, said, "It's not a matter of yes and no. Our aim is that Afghanistan's land should not be used for terror activity of any kind."

He said that India used the meeting in Doha to convey its concerns over the possible use of the Afghan territory for anti-India activities and to bring back the remaining Indians from Afghanistan. "We received a positive response," he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has criticised the United States' involvement in Afghanistan, charging that its 20-year-long military presence in the country has achieved "zero."

Putin said Wednesday that for 20 years, the US military in Afghanistan "was trying ... to civilise the people who live there, to introduce their norms and standards of life in the broadest sense of the word, including the political organisation of society."

"The result is sheer tragedies, sheer losses, both for those who were doing that — the US — and more so for the people who live in Afghanistan. A zero result, if not negative," Putin said.

US President Joe Biden defended his handling of the US exit from Afghanistan, praising as historic a weeks-long evacuation of more than 100,000 people and rejecting criticism that the withdrawal was mishandled.

“I was not going to extend this forever war, and I was not extending a forever exit,” he said. “It was time to end this war,” he added later in his speech, pounding his fist on the lectern. 

Republicans have said Biden should have extended an Aug. 31 deadline to withdraw until every American was removed from the country. About 200 Americans remain in Afghanistan, according to the State Department, and the president said his decision was not “arbitrary.”

As US completes withdrawal from Afghanistan, it will host a virtual meeting to discuss approach for the coming days where Qatar will participate.

Qatar has played a significant role in US efforts to evacuate.

The meeting will also include Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, Turkey, the European Union and NATO.

Qatar has also reportedly been asked by the Taliban to provide civilian technical assistance at Kabul’s international airport, once the U.S. military withdrawal is complete on Tuesday. Authorities in Qatar have not commented on the reports.

The US on Sunday said its military forces conducted drone strikes on a “multiple suicide bombers” vehicle in Afghanistan‘s capital city Kabul and eliminated an ISIS-K threat to Hamad Karzai International airport where a large number of people have gathered to flee from the war-torn country. A massive evacuation is currently underway at the airport by several countries to take their people back safely.

Quoting Captain Bill Urban, CENTCOM spokesperson, an international agency reported, “US military forces conducted a self-defense unmanned over-the-horizon airstrike today on a vehicle in Kabul, eliminating an imminent ISIS-K threat to Hamad Karzai International airport.”