India has not yet made a decision on Russia's invitation to negotiate with Afghanistan and the Taliban

New Delhi: India has not yet decided to participate in Russia's second attempt to bring the Taliban and the Afghan government together to work for a peaceful settlement.

The Russian Foreign Ministry has announced that the second meeting of the Moscow format talks on Afghanistan will be held next Friday (9 November).

"The President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, in Ghani, has decided to send a delegation of the High Peace Council of that country to the meeting. For the first time, a delegation from the political bureau of the Taliban movement in Doha will participate in an international meeting of this level, "said the press release published in Moscow Saturday, November 3.

He added that invitations had been sent to Afghanistan, the United States, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

This is the second time Moscow has tried to hold the regional forum with the Taliban.

Last August, Russia announced that it would hold the second round of the 11-member regional mechanism with Afghanistan on 4 September, with the participation of the Taliban. The press release had also indicated that the meeting would be co-chaired with Afghanistan.

The United States was the first to refuse the invitation, stating that it was "unlikely that the meeting would lead to progress" towards a settlement.

More importantly, Afghanistan has also declined. According to them, the Taliban should first hold direct talks with the Afghan government rather than sit together in a multilateral platform with other countries.

Just two days after the announcement of 21 August, Russia postponed talks indefinitely in the "Moscow format".

Since then, intense discussions have taken place over the last two months, with frequent visits between Kabul and Moscow to resolve this Gordian knot.

Although the Russian Foreign Ministry reported that invitations had been sent to 11 countries, it did not indicate whether they had been accepted.

Official sources in New Delhi said Thread that no decision has yet been taken on India's participation in the talks on the Moscow format.

While the Russian communiqué mentioned President Ashraf Ghani's badent to Afghanistan's participation, the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Kabul still had not agreed.

The Afghan news agency Pajhwok announced that the country's foreign ministry was still in discussion with Moscow at the meeting on 9 November.

"Our discussions are under way and we are working on a result regarding participation in the Moscow conference," Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Sibghatullah Ahmadi said Saturday at the ministry's announcement. Russian Foreign Affairs.

According to information received, the Taliban have already indicated that their officials are ready to attend the talks in Moscow, as they wished in August.

According to the Pajhwok report, he added that the Moscow meeting would not be effective if it took place without the participation of Afghanistan.

Afghan officials had been publicly dissatisfied with their "support" for the Taliban, who were supposed to help in its fight against the Islamic State of Khorasan (IS-K). Russia has denied providing material support to the Taliban, but considers the IS-K system a more serious threat.

India will likely measure the level of Afghan participation before making a decision on Russia's invitation to participate in the talks.

Even in August, New Delhi wondered whether to attend a conference that would give the Taliban some international recognition of the Afghan government by sitting at the same table with foreign countries. But it was not necessary to make a decision because the talks were quickly postponed.

Given that India has publicly supported an Afghan-led and leader-led peace process, it would be difficult for New Delhi to attend the "Moscow format" peace process if there is no presence of Kabul.

Meanwhile, Reuters reported on November 2 that Russia had "quietly" invited several Afghan leaders to Moscow in the past two months.

The news agency quoted anonymous Afghan officials as saying they were unhappy that Russia is continuing its plans for the talks on the Moscow format.

"We asked Russia to cancel the summit because discussing with the Taliban at several forums would further complicate the US-backed peace process, but they rejected the demand," Reuters told Reuters. senior Afghan official.

The United States held two rounds of direct talks with the Afghan Taliban. US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad attended the latter in Doha on October 12.

The Afghan government has not been satisfied with individual talks between foreign governments with the Taliban because it has left Kabul out in the cold and the Taliban continue to refuse to start direct intra-Afghan talks.