External Affairs Minister speaks at the 9th Heart of Asia Ministerial Conference in Dushanbe.
New Delhi:
Afghanistan has welcomed the remarks made by External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar at the ”Heart Of Asia” conference in Dushanbe on Tuesday.
Referring to the presence of foreign fighters in Afghanistan, S Jaishankar had said, “For a durable peace in Afghanistan, what we need is a genuine ‘double peace’, that is, peace within Afghanistan and peace around Afghanistan.”
S Jaishankar’s remarks were seen as a veiled reference to Pakistan’s continued support to regional terrorism and non-state actors.
Talking exclusively to ANI, the Afghan envoy to India backed India’s position and said that support to non-state actors from foreign governments must stop.
Farid Mamundzay said, “Till terror support continues from within the region of beyond region the conflict will continue, we have been suffering our people are suffering because of foreign fighters, Afghans have suffered the most, it’s not a civil war in Afghanistan, it’s international terrorism and that has caused a lot of misery and lot of blood, so wherever it is coming from we want all those non-state actors to stop killing Afghans and destabilising Afghanistan.”
Recently, Afghanistan foreign minister Mohammed Hanif Atmar, who was in New Delhi, urged India to be part of all forum where peace in Afghanistan is discussed as it has huge stakes in the development of the country.
The security scenario in Afghanistan has direct implications for India. Moreover, New Delhi also echoed its support for an immediate ceasefire in Afghanistan.
“Afghanistan envoy to India said, “Troika echoed the opinion of international community produced a very good statement that level of violence should be dropped, this is a very principle position from India, it is a very strategic partner, it is the largest contributor to development in Afghanistan, it has stakes in Afghanistan, India wants peaceful and prosperous Afghanistan, we are grateful India is supporting the position of the Afghan government, violence has to be stopped, violence has to dropped in weeks and months ahead.”
According to diplomatic sources, the External Affairs Minister is expected to make a visit to Kabul soon. It is learnt that Atmar invited S Jaishankar to Kabul during his India visit and that dates are being worked out.
When asked about the S Jaishankarproposed visit to Kabul, the envoy said, “No dates are finalised, we are working on it, we expect senior leadership to visit Afghanistan soon.”