NEW DELHI: A junior Taliban minister visited India last week to participate in an exhibition on healthcare and pharmaceuticals. Deputy minister of medicine and food Hamdullah Zahid, who was in India, is equivalent to the rank of secretary in India’s health ministry.This was a rare visit by a senior Taliban official to India. It also came ahead of a likely visit by the Taliban foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi later this year that is expected to further cement India’s ties with the Taliban, even in the absence of a formal recognition by India of the regime in Kabul.

As ties continue to improve, India has remained in touch with Taliban to finalise dates for Muttaqi’s visit. After dates are worked out, India will seek a UNSC waiver from the travel ban imposed by the council on the Taliban leader. Unlike Muttaqi, Zahid isn’t on a sanctioned list and didn’t require UNSC’s approval to travel to India.The Taliban head of political office and Afghan ambassador to Qatar, Suhail Shaheen, told TOI earlier this week that there’s a need for both countries to upgrade and strengthen their ties. “For that, high level visits of foreign ministers’ level is a need. It will pave the way for exploring various fields of cooperation including trade between the two countries,” he said.