As India held talks with the Taliban in the wake of a Paused Operation Sindoor, a dangerous alliance is quietly consolidating in the region. China and Pakistan are courting the Taliban government of Afghanistan. While Taliban calls it a regular CPEC related meeting, the conversation points stretched beyond simple trade!
As per the unreliable Chinese and NaPak media, they have struck a strategic understanding to limit India’s role in Afghanistan. Some even suggest that they plan to redraw the geopolitical map of South Asia. However, the reality remains unknown. It seems that behind the closed doors of Beijing and Kabul, a new Axis of Exclusion is being forged – with India in the crosshairs.
Diplomatic Isolation Attempt: India’s Soft Power Under Siege
For two decades, India invested billions of dollars in Afghanistan. Bharat built roads, dams, schools, and hospitals. It provided aid and trade. India stood by the Afghan people when most walked away. But the recent news of trilateral talks in Beijing signals a deliberate and coordinated push to erase India’s legacy and influence in post-2021 Afghanistan.
According to the unreliable Pakistani media, the three sides agreed to confine India’s role solely to its embassy, barring it from engaging in any developmental, security, or strategic work.
However, NaPak media is hardly credible. But, if even a fraction of this news is true, it should raise eyebrows in the corridors of New Delhi. Such an alliance wouldn’t just be a diplomatic snub – it will signal a calculated erasure of goodwill. For Pakistan, this has always been a goal: to eliminate Indian presence from its western frontier. For China, the meeting may be about ensuring exclusive economic control in the region. And for the Taliban, the meeting may have been a test of loyalties!
The three natiosn meet often due to shared CPEC interests. However, this meeting comes at a time when India has no formal diplomatic presence in Kabul, apart from a limited technical team. In the aftermath of Operation Sindoor, this vacuum may now be filled aggressively by India’s adversaries in the subcontinent.
Taliban ’s Shifting Loyalty: From Neutral to Hostile Alignment
Since the Taliban’s return to power in 2021, India has adopted a cautious but pragmatic engagement strategy. Bharat’s humanitarian aid, reopened communication channels, and non-hostile public tone was a deliberate diplomatic tactic. Many saw it as a chance to influence a new Afghan regime without boots on the ground.
Meanwhile, China has been courting the Taliban for a while. However, these latest talks with Pakistan in attendance may ensure that the Taliban’s tilt is no longer neutral. Participating in a China-led initiative conversation with Pakistan is a signal to Bharat that a soft approach or quasi-diplomatic friendship will no longer cut it!
While the real agenda of the meeting remains undisclosed, they all point to a hardening pro-Beijing, pro-Islamabad stance.
India’s expectations of the Taliban operating independently from Pakistani control may be a thing of the past. The Muslim Ummah solidarity along with giving up on the Durand Line, may make Afghanistan come to the pro-Pakistan pitch. The Taliban may use Beijing’s patronage and Islamabad’s strategic depth to stay afloat – and India’s billion-dollar overtures shall mean little in return.
CPEC Expansion with Taliban = Military and Strategic Threat at India’s Doorstep
If news about the extension of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) into Afghanistan is true, then Bharat has cause to worry. The CPEC is not merely about roads and trade. It’s a strategic maneuver with potential military implications for India.
CPEC infrastructure – roads, railways, dry ports – can be easily dual-purposed by China to fund Pakistani misadventures with India.
What’s being sold as “economic development” could easily become a logistical network for Chinese military presence in India’s western periphery. It creates a direct Beijing-Islamabad-Kabul axis, physically linking two of India’s adversaries through Taliban territory. Moreover, India has consistently opposed CPEC, as it passes through Pakistan-occupied Jammu-Kashmir (PoJK). Now, its extension into Afghanistan signals an even larger regional encirclement plan, where China’s checkbook diplomacy meets Pakistan’s obsession with containing India.
This strategic realignment also limits India’s access to Central Asia – cutting off an alternative route via Chabbar Port and Afghanistan for trade and energy security.
Kashmir Mention: Dangerous Normalisation of Anti-India Narratives
Perhaps the most alarming development is the reported mention of “Indian-administered Kashmir“ instead of PoJK or Chinese-occupied Indian territory during the talks. The agenda’s nomenclature denotes that Jammu and Kashmir is a non-Indian region. Pakistan allegedly requested Taliban support for a “neutral investigation” into the 22nd April 2025 incident in Pahalgam, Jammu & Kashmir.
While reports state that the Taliban remained non-committal, the very inclusion of Kashmir in the trilateral dialogue hosted and supported by China induces a very wrong flavor to the conversation.
It normalizes the position that Jammu and Kashmir is a “disputed region” where India does not need to be on the table where other countries discuss its regional status. This sets a dangerous precedent, where Afghanistan is dragged into the anti-India propaganda ecosystem previously dominated by Pakistan.
China’s silence on this is telling. It is happy to support Pakistan’s position on Kashmir in exchange for strategic obedience and infrastructure contracts. For India, this raises serious diplomatic concerns – especially when such conversations are being internationalized under Chinese patronage.
Timing is Telling: India Distracted While Enemies Consolidate
While India debates internal issues with a rogue opposition providing fuel for NaPak media, its adversaries are busy drawing new maps behind closed doors. This trilateral pact, if true, received barely any coverage in Indian media. There is no neutral reporting of the meeting.
It’s part of a larger pattern: India often looks inward when it should be watching its flanks.
In the last decade, the China-Pakistan nexus has matured into an active military and economic alliance. Now, if they get Taliban to board their bus, it adds oodles of trouble for Bharat. The Taliban add an ideological and geographic depth to this Sino-Pak axis.
The lack of immediate response or proactive diplomacy from India makes the situation more concerning.
This isn’t the time to be caught flat-footed. A strategic recalibration is overdue – especially in engaging Central Asia. While India engages with Iran, holds telephonic conversations with Taliban, and warns Bangladesh; Pakistan is using its Chinese master to tame ties with -Taliban.
Scary Thought – Redrawing Asia, Without India at the Table
The trilateral Beijing-Kabul-Islamabad axis may not just be a figment of a NaPak media house. It may be an ugly reality of a regional dialogue with a blueprint to isolate India. The rising Bharat is a threat to China and America.
The US and China will neutralize its influence to rewrite the rules of engagement in South Asia at all costs.
Pakistan brings historical hatred, China brings money and strategy, and the Taliban brings geography and ideology. If allowed to ferment a bond, they shall form an axis that could severely challenge India’s regional standing if left unchecked.
India must now move beyond soft diplomacy.
This is not just about Afghanistan – the future of South Asian balance! Whether India remains a decisive force depends on the outcome of this meeting. If Bharat is caught napping, it may slowly be edged out by an encircling coalition.