In India, all eyes are on the rapidly destabilising situation in Afghanistan

Reports this week that India has prepared evacuation plans for all its Afghanistan-based personnel speak volumes about just how bad the situation is getting, writes Adam Withnall

‘The fall of Kabul would have huge geopolitical ramifications’ (Reuters/Omar Sobhani)

The rapidly destabilising situation in Afghanistan might feel very far away to readers in the US, UK and other Nato member states whose troops are completing a planned withdrawal after 20 years of bloodshed.

But the recent advances of the Taliban and embarrassing losses for the Afghan military are being watched with mounting alarm right across Asia and eastern Europe, where the fall of Kabul would have huge geopolitical ramifications.

After a couple of dark months in the pandemic, here in India the focus is once again expanding beyond the immediate task of securing oxygen and other urgent medical supplies to the ever-shifting sands of diplomatic relations in the country’s neighbourhood.