New Delhi: In an extraordinary alignment of old rivals, India has joined hands with Pakistan, China, and Russia to deliver a stinging rebuke to US President Donald Trump for his efforts to reclaim Afghanistan’s Bagram Airbase.
The unified front emerged from the seventh Moscow Format Consultations on Afghanistan, held in the Russian capital on Tuesday, where delegates issued a joint statement slamming foreign military footprints as “unacceptable” threats to regional peace.
India’s overt backing of the Taliban-led regime — rare in its public candour — marks a diplomatic pivot, coming just days before Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi’s anticipated visit to New Delhi.
The gathering, attended by special envoys and senior officials from Afghanistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and guest Belarus, underscored a shared resolve for Kabul’s sovereignty.
Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid fired back at Trump, vowing, “Afghans will never cede their soil under any circumstance.”
Trump’s September salvo — demanding the base’s handover, citing its strategic perch near China’s Xinjiang nuclear sites — has ignited fears of renewed US meddling. Bagram, a Soviet-era hub seized by the Washington Post post-2001 and abandoned in the 2021 chaos, symbolises America’s turbulent 20-year Afghan saga.
The joint communique, without naming the US, decried such “deployments” as antithetical to stability, echoing calls for counter-terrorism pacts and economic integration.
This unlikely alliance, forged in Moscow’s corridors, signifies a shift from covert ties to bold solidarity. As Muttaqi joins for the first time, the message to Washington is clear — Afghanistan’s future lies with its neighbours, not distant powers. For India, it’s a calculated stand safeguarding regional equities amid global flux.