Failure of Kabul-US talks leaves India concerned

US's dismissal of red lines set by the global community in its opening talks with Taliban and its affiliate Haqqani network may dominate the India-US strategic dialogue on June 24. Jayanth Jacob reports.

US's dismissal of red lines set by the global community in its opening talks with Taliban and its affiliate Haqqani network may dominate the India-US strategic dialogue on June 24. US secretary of state John Kerry and external affairs minister Salman Khurshid will be chairing the dialogue.

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Talks between US officials and Taliban representatives set for Thursday in Qatar were cancelled with the Afghan government's anger at the opening of a Taliban office there.

The development has put the bilateral security arrangement between the two countries hanging in balance.

India believes developments in Afghanistan will have "direct national security implications for it," and a strategic partner like US shouldn't have overlooked these concerns in a bid to wind up its active presence in the trouble-torn country.

In fact, India has been telling the US about its concerns regarding Taliban and their affiliates like the Haqqani network "waiting in the wings" to fill in the vacuum to be created by the US when it withdraws all its troops by 2014.

The Haqqani network, based out of Pakistan's North Waziristan, is most inimical to the Indian interests in Afghanistan, sources said.

It seems the development has caught India by surprise despite Washington claims of keeping India in the loop regarding its dealing with Afghanistan.