EAM, Doval discuss Afghan crisis with Russian official

Patrushev met Jaishankar after holding wide-ranging talks with NSA Ajit Doval with a focus on possible security threats to the region from the Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. “Glad to meet Secretary of Security Council of Russia, Nikolai Patrushev. Very useful discussions on Afghanistan,” Jaishankar tweeted. Patrushev arrived here on Tuesday on a two-day visit as a follow-up to the telephonic conversation between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin on August 24. Later he also called on Modi. “Was happy to meet Mr. Nikolai Patrushev, Secretary of the Security Council of Russia. His visit allowed useful discussions between both sides on important regional developments,” Modi tweeted.

“A wide range of issues of the Russian-Indian bilateral cooperation was discussed. An exchange of views took place on a number of international and regional problems, including the situation in Afghanistan,” said a Russian read-out of the Jaishankar-Patrushev meeting.

India has been in touch with all leading powers on the developments in Afghanistan following the withdrawal of troops by the US. Burns, Patrushev and the UK’s Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) Richard Moore were among a number of key intelligence and security officials to visit India over the last few days, it is learnt. The Doval-Patrushev talks delved into security implications of the Taliban’s capture of power for India, Russia and the Central Asian region as a number of dreaded terror groups including Jaish-e-Muhammad and Lashkar-e-Taiba having a strong presence in the war-torn country, people familiar with the meeting said.

Doval meets US spymaster Burns

Ajit Doval met with US spymaster William Burns in Delhi on Tuesday. The meeting took place on a day when the Taliban announced the names of people who would run Afghanistan, including a man on the UN sanctions list being named as Prime Minister. The details of what Doval and the CIA chief discussed are not known, but in the backdrop of the Taliban government formation in Afghanistan, security issues were on top priority.