National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval is likely to visit Moscow next month (February) during which he will participate in a regional dialogue on Afghanistan. The NSA will also hold bilateral talks with his Russian coun- terpart Nikolai Patrushev on the sidelines of the conference on Afghanistan. Sources told The Daily Guardian that the NSAs of India and Russia would discuss terrorism emanating from territory under control of Afghanistan and Pakistan. The two top security officials of India and Russia will also review what exactly the Taliban’s regime has done
so far to deal with terrorist organisations operating from Afghanistan. “Action taken by the security agencies to rein in terrorists in Pakistan would also be reviewed by the NSAs,” sources said, adding, Doval and the Russian NSA would also be discussing the ways to ramp up stra-
tegic ties between New Delhi and Moscow. The issue of terrorism and measures to counter it would be the key agenda during the talks, sources said. The Central Asian NSAs would also be participating in the dialogue on Afghanistan where the issue of counter- terrorism and humanitarian issues will be discussed elaborately. The NSAs would also take stock of the hu-
man rights situation in Afghanistan, and will check through data and evidence whether the Taliban is doing enough to address the issues concerning the common people in the trouble-torn nation.India hosted this dialogue in 2021 followed by Ta- jikistan in 2022. Last month, India also hosted Central Asian NSAs with a special focus on Afghanistan. The Moscow dialogue on Afghanistan will be useful for In- dia’s SCO presidency as the terror infrastructure there is a matter of concern for Eurasian region as well as for India. This will also be a useful exercise for India’s SCO presi- dency. India will host the SCO NSAs meet ahead of thesummit in June. Doval last visited Moscow in 2022 for bilateral dialogue that gave momentum to strategic and
economic partnership between the two nations. Sources said that India wants the SCO to partner closely with the Paris-based terror financing watch- dog Financial Action Task Force (FATF). NSA Doval would also reiterate this during the dialogue. Speaking at a meeting of NSAs of the SCO member countries in Dushanbe last year, Doval had come down heavily on Pakistan and proposed an “action plan” against Paki-stan-based terror outfits like the Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed under the Shanghai Organisation Cooperation (SCO) framework. Doval had also under-scored the need for adopting global standards to address the challenge of terror financing.