Growing engagement.

REALPOLITIK trumps ideology. That's the main lesson from the thawing relations between the Afghan Taliban and India. Pakistan must carefully track these evolving ties to calibrate not only its foreign policy, but also its sense of its own global standing.

A recent visit by representatives from India's external affairs ministry ostensibly focused on humanitarian aid delivery, but inevitably touched on regional security matters, specifically counterterrorism. Senior Taliban government officials engaged with the Indian delegation and provided assurances they would prevent the use of Afghan soil against India by groups such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, and Hizbul Mujahideen.

This is not the first engagement between the Afghan Taliban and India. New Delhi had backchannel links to the Taliban prior to the group's takeover of Afghanistan, and Indian officials met Taliban representatives in Doha just weeks after the Taliban captured Kabul. India has long recognised that Afghanistan is critical to its security and regional stability, and that blunt opposition to the Taliban regime - or even an ongoing isolationist approach - would not be possible.

That realisation was heightened in recent days following militant threats to India by militant groups after BJP leaders made derogatory remarks about the Holy Prophet (PBUH).

For India, an isolationist approach to the Afghan Taliban isn't possible.

The overtures from New Delhi (which predate the threats) confirm that a cornered Taliban regime will prioritise humanitarian assistance and international relations - and the distant hope of formal recognition - over any outmoded sense of fealty to the Pakistani establishment.

For the Taliban, ties with India offer leverage over Pakistan (much in the same way that its ability to curtail or prop up the Pakistani Taliban does). By courting others, the Afghan Taliban can ensure that they are not overly reliant on Islamabad in terms of diplomatic and economic support.

There is an ongoing debate about whether this reflects Pakistan's declining global standing, or the growing political savvy of the Afghan Taliban who realise that a relationship of bilateral patronage is less useful than it may have been in the 1990s in an era of multipolarity.

What is clear though is that Pakistan must develop its own foreign policy in light of these realities. The key aspect that deserves recognition - beyond security circles, where it is known, and primarily among the...