Afghan embassy in India suspends operations

Afghanistan’s embassy in India on Sunday suspended operations, more than two years after the ouster of the former Western-backed government.

While New Delhi does not recognise the Taliban government that returned to power in 2021, it had allowed the Afghan embassy to continue operations under the ambassador and mission staff appointed by former president Ashraf Ghani, who fled Kabul as US troops pulled out.

“It is with profound sadness, regret, and disappointment that the Embassy of Afghanistan in New Delhi announces this decision to cease its operations,” the statement read, posted on X.

Press Statement
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: 30th September, 2023

Afghanistan is closing its Embassy in New Delhi.

The Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in New Delhi regrets to announce the decision to cease its operations, effective October 1, 2023. pic.twitter.com/BXesWPdLFP

— Afghan Embassy India (@AfghanistanInIN) September 30, 2023

The suspension comes into immediate effect.

The statement said it had been “increasingly challenging” to continue operations due to cuts in staff and resources, including a “lack of timely and sufficient support from visa renewal for diplomats”.

The closure follows reports that the ambassador and other senior diplomats left India in recent months, with infighting among those remaining in New Delhi.

But the statement said it “categorically refutes any baseless claims regarding internal strife” among embassy staff, and denied any diplomats were “using the crisis to seek asylum in a third country”.

India will take control of the embassy in a caretaker capacity, it added.