The Taliban’s Entry Into India-Pakistan Rivalry

Kabul’s flirt with New Delhi is a classic case of geopolitical logic.

Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi arrives at Afghanistan's embassy in New Delhi for a press conference on Oct. 12. November 3, 2025, 6:55 AM Comment icon View Comments ( )

If geography is destiny, then nowhere is this equation more relentless than at the subcontinent’s northwestern frontier. Since the partition of British India in 1947, two patterns have held steady: hostility between Afghanistan and Pakistan, and warmth between Afghanistan and India. No matter who rules in Kabul—monarchists, communists, or various iterations of Islamists—the pattern endures. Pakistan helped create and nurture the Taliban to end these patterns once and for all; today, t

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