India will attend Moscow Format on Afghanistan afterTaliban takeover

India will participate in the Moscow Format meeting on October 20, the first after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.  According ro External affairs ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi the participation will be at the joint secretary level. In a briefing in New Delhi on Thursday , Bagdhi said that this will be the second time New Delhi will be face to face with the Taliban after the group toppled the Ashraf Ghani government in a coup on August 15, and the first meeting after the Taliban announced its Cabinet.Moscow Format is a negotiation mechanism established in 2017 to address the issues of Afghanistan. It includes countries like Afghanistan, China, Pakistan, Iran and India. The United States too had participated in Moscow Format before. This is not the first time that the Taliban will be invited to the platform, but the first time after they have their government in Afghanistan.

India also backed the World Health Organization (WHO)’s decision to create an expert group to examine the origins of new pathogens, including the Coronavirus that causes Covid-19, and said all countries should cooperate with the probe.  Bagchi reiterated India has consistently backed all moves by WHO to establish the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic, and called on all stakeholders, including China, to cooperate with such efforts.