Afghan officials attend ITEC capacity building course

KABUL (Pajhwok): Afghan foreign policy officials had been asked to attend the Indian technical Economic Cooperation (ITEC) online capacity building course, a media report said on Friday.

The Indian Economic Times reported that the Institute of Diplomacy under the Afghan Foreign Ministry reportedly conveyed to officials in Kabul to register for the ITEC course which was to be hosted by the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Kozhikode.

Instituted in 1964, ITEC is one of the oldest institutionalised arrangements for international capacity building having trained more than 200,000 officials from 160+ countries in both the civilian and in the defence sector.

In June last year, India re-established its diplomatic presence in Kabul by deploying a "technical team" in its embassy in the Afghan capital.

India had withdrawn its officials from the embassy after the Taliban seized power in August 2021 following concerns over their security.

Referring to the development Indian foreign ministry spokesperson said there has been no change in India's position on the Taliban regime.

"Our position on how we see developments in Afghanistan has not changed. I do not think anything should be read into ITEC courses vis-a-vis that. We certainly would not be issuing note verbales, which are inter-governmental notes, to entities that are not recognised," he said.