Given the continuing international freeze on Afghanistan’s economic assets and meagre financial support from erstwhile donors, an increase in the production and sale of illegal drugs is likely. A Taliban boost for the opium trade, combined with its support to terrorist organisations like al-Qaeda, can exacerbate the challenge of narco-terrorism.

The crises in Ukraine and Afghanistan have been transformed into geopolitically disconnected concerns even as there is much that connects them. Russian aggression in Ukraine serves as a critical reminder of the dangers associated both with the misuse of history and its wilful abandonment.

Against the backdrop of a volatile global order, the Indo-Chinese bonhomie in Afghanistan offers a lesson in constructive competition