With US-Taliban peace deal in Afghanistan, India have to face Islamist extremism in region: CPI(M)

New Delhi: The US-Taliban peace deal for Afghanistan represents a "unilateral retreat" by Washington from the region and it has landed India in an "unenviable situation" of having to face a "recrudescence" of Islamist extremism, the CPI(M) said on Thursday.

After more than 18 years of war in Afghanistan, the US and the Taliban reached an agreement on February 29 in what was both sides' most intensive efforts yet to end the war. Central to the deal is a significant draw down of US troops and guarantees from the Taliban that the country would not become a safe haven for terrorists.

"The agreement to bring peace in Afghanistan signed by the United States and the Taliban at Doha represents nothing but a unilateral retreat by the United States from Afghanistan.

"The foreign secretary was dispatched to Kabul to declare India's support for the beleaguered government - a symbolic act without substance. With Pakistan back in the driving seat in Afghan affairs, India is now landed with an unenviable situation of having to face a recrudescence of Islamist extremism in the region," said an editorial in CPI(M) mouthpiece People's Democracy.

That this happened under the "deep strategic embrace" of the United States is a "telling commentary on the utility of the much vaunted Indo-US strategic  partnership", it stated.

"The (Narendra) Modi government was faced with a fait accompli when the Doha agreement was announced. The United States has not bothered with Indian sensitivities in the matter. (Donald) Trump came on his visit to India after the agreement had been reached. It was only left for Trump to tell Modi that the United States would be getting out of Afghanistan and cutting its losses," it said.