Staff Reporter / WEB DESK
India’s External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar on Saturday conveyed that his country’s policy on Afghanistan had been consistent. He said that India believed any peace process must be Afghan-led, Afghan-owned and Afghan-controlled, has to respect the national sovereignty and territorial integrity of Afghanistan and preserve the progress made in the establishment of a democratic Islamic Republic in Afghanistan.
“The interests of minorities, women and vulnerable sections of society must be preserved and the issue of violence across the country and its neighbourhood has to be effectively addressed” Dr Jaishankar said while participating in the inaugural session of the Intra-Afghan negotiations held in Doha on Saturday via video teleconference.
The Minister’s participation was in response to an invitation extended to him by the Qatar’s Foreign Minister Mohammad bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani.
In his address, Dr. Jaishankar referred to the millennia-old relationship between India and Afghanistan, which he said had withstood the test of time. He highlighted India’s role as a major development partner of Afghanistan with over 400 projects completed in all the 34 provinces of Afghanistan.
Dr. Jaishankar wished for the success of the Intra-Afghan negotiations in delivering to the people of Afghanistan what they have longed for.
Without naming Pakistan, or any Pakistan based terror group with links to the Afghan Taliban, Jaishankar said that India’s expectation was that the soil of Afghanistan is never used for anti-India activities.
The intra-Afghan Afghan talks followed the US peace deal with the Taliban in February that bypassed the elected government in Kabul. Unlike then, when India’s ambassador to Qatar participated in the event, a senior-level delegation led by MEA’s joint secretary for PAI (Pakistan-Afghanistan-Iran) division J P Singh travelled to Doha on this occasion to attend the inaugural ceremony.