Noor Ahmad Noor, first Taliban-appointed diplomat meets MEA pointsperson

Noor Ahmad Noor, the first Taliban-appointed official in Delhi after it took control of Afghanistan in August 2021, arrived in the country over the weekend

Published on: Jan 12, 2026, 23:37:15 IST

By Rezaul H Laskar

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NEW DELHI: The Taliban’s new chargé d’affaires at the Afghan embassy in New Delhi met the external affairs ministry’s pointperson for the region on Monday to discuss political and economic relations and the expansion of trade.

Noor Ahmad Noor, the first Taliban-appointed official posted in the Indian capital since the group took control of Afghanistan in August 2021, arrived in the country over the weekend. His meeting with Anand Prakash, the joint secretary heading the external affairs ministry’s Pakistan-Afghanistan-Iran division, was announced on social media by the Afghan embassy.

Noor and Prakash held detailed discussions on “bilateral political and economic relations, the expansion of trade, facilitation of visa processes and issues faced by Afghan traders, students, and Afghan nationals residing in India”, the embassy said in a social media post.

“Both sides emphasised the importance of strengthening Afghanistan-India relations and expanding bilateral cooperation and engagement,” the post said.

There was no official word on the meeting from the Indian side.

Noor earlier served as director general of the first political department at the foreign ministry in Kabul and was part of the delegation that accompanied Taliban foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi on his visit to India last October. It was during Muttaqi’s visit - the first by a senior Taliban functionary to India - that New Delhi agreed to allow the group to post its diplomats in the Indian capital.

Two others posted to India - Ikramuddin Kamil and Habibur Rahman Aftab - currently head the Afghan consulates in Mumbai and Hyderabad respectively.

Following Muttaqi’s visit, the Indian government decided last October to restore the status of the “technical mission” in Kabul to that of the Indian embassy. “This decision underscores India’s resolve to deepen its bilateral engagement with the Afghan side in all spheres of mutual interest,” the external affairs ministry said at the time.

Like most other countries, India doesn’t recognise the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. However, it has deepened its engagement with the Taliban to secure India’s interests in Afghanistan.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rezaul H Laskar
Rezaul Hasan Laskar is Foreign Editor with the Hindustan Times, which he joined in 2015. He began as a journalist in his hometown of Shillong in northeast India and has worked in newspapers and wire services over the years. He moved to New Delhi in 1997 and initially focused on defence, national security, Jammu and Kashmir and the northeast, while also working of foreign policy and international relations. He has been part of the media delegation accompanying PMs on foreign visits and has reported from destinations ranging from Tibet to Ukraine. Between 2007 and 2013, he was the Press Trust of India correspondent in Pakistan, one of only two Indian journalists allowed to report from the country. He extensively covered Pakistan’s domestic politics and the life of the common people, as well as the fallout of the 2008 Mumbai attacks on India-Pakistan relations and the subsequent trial in Pakistan of the suspects involved in the attack. As part of his reportage in Pakistan, he travelled the breadth of the country, from the Swat Valley to Balochistan. Reza’s first gig in journalism was writing a weekly music column, and music – especially classic rock – remains a keen interest. He is also a movie buff and a keen photographer.Read More

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