BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN: At a time when the US is seeking to directly engage the Taliban , India's shift away from its own “no-truck-with Taliban” policy became evident on Tuesday, when foreign minister Salman Khurshid said New Delhi supported dialogue with all sections of the Afghan society and armed opposition groups "including the Taliban".

Although Khurshid, who was addressing a meeting of the Asean Regional Forum, stressed that any dialogue in Afghanistan must recognize all internationally accepted red lines, his remarks here amplified the shift in India’s stand against Taliban’s inclusion in negotiations with Afghanistan.

Elaborating on the approach, Khurshid said, 'But this process must be a broad based Afghan-led Afghan-owned reconciliation process, within the framework of the Afghan Constitution and internationally accepted red lines. This dialogue must involve all sections of the Afghan society and armed opposition groups, including the Taliban”.

India had always maintained that it had strong reservations about talks with Taliban, arguing that the idea of “good Taliban” is an oxymoron. PM Manmohan Singh did say in a speech in Afghan Parliament in 2011 that India supported the reconciliation process in the war-torn country and that it would respect the choices made by its MPs, but refrained from mentioning Taliban.

The new openness to the prospect of Taliban’s participation in reconciliation talks in Afghanistan coincides with the US’s overtures towards the group whom it had encouraged to open an office in Doha.

The US has also said that the engagement with Taliban will not be at the cost of red lines. The red lines are diplomatic short hand for the insistence that Taliban agreed to abide by the constitution of Afghanistan, shun violence and commit to respect the rights of women and ethnic minorities.

Reiterating this during an intervention on exchange of views on regional and international issues here, Khurshid also said that India will remain engaged with Afghanistan.

"The reconciliation process must not undermine the legitimacy of the Afghan State and Government and the political, social and economic progress witnessed in Afghanistan over the past decade, to which members of the international community have contributed in great measure. I may emphasize here that India’s Afghanistan policy does not have an exit policy. India has played an important role in the reconstruction and rehabilitation of Afghanistan," he said.

Without naming Pakistan, Khurshid said there was a need for joint and concerted efforts to dismantle terrorist sanctuaries and safe havens beyond Afghan borders and disrupt all financial and tactical support for terrorism.

"We must assist Afghanistan in its efforts to become a stable, democratic and pluralistic state. The international community must stay committed to Afghanistan in the form of development and security assistance during this period of transition and transformation," he said.

Khurshid also sought to draw attention to Pakistan’s proliferation linkages with North Korea saying another area of deep concern to India was that of clandestine proliferation of WMD technologies which poses a grave threat to international security.

"With a view to address the risk of nuclear weapons, materials and technology falling into the hands of terrorists, India has been piloting a UN resolution in this regard for the past several years. In this context, the situation in the Korean peninsula and the DPRK’s links to clandestine proliferation emanating from our neighbourhood deserves careful scrutiny," he said.