India "Contiguous" Neighbour And Long-Standing Partner Of Afghanistan, Concerned About Recent Developments There: Govt

The government on Thursday (2 December) said that India is concerned about the recent developments in its "contigous neighbour" Afghanistan after Taliban took over the country.

"As a contiguous neighbor and long-standing partner of Afghanistan, India is concerned about recent developments in that country," Minister of State in Ministry of External Affairs V Muraleedharan said in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha.

India remains engaged with the international community and regional partners on Afghanistan, the minister said.

The minister was asked about the whether the government has made an appraisal of the fallout of Taliban takeover on India-Afghanistan bilateral relations.

"In this regard, the Prime Minister participated in the SCO-CSTO Summit and the G-20 Extraordinary Summit on Afghanistan. External Affairs Minister participated in the Afghanistan Conference co-convened by USA and Germany and the UN High Level Meeting on the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan," he added.

The minister said that India has supported a pivotal role of the UN in Afghanistan.

"Under India’s Presidency, the UN Security Council adopted resolution 2593, which inter alia demanded that Afghan territory not be used to threaten or attack any country; shelter or train terrorists; plan and finance terrorist acts," he said.

The minister also informed that India also organised the Delhi Regional Security Dialogue in November, which was attended by the National Security Advisers and Secretaries of the National Security Councils of Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

The Dialogue resulted in the Delhi Declaration, which reflected the ‘regional consensus’ on major issues of regional stability and security, he said.

"All sides agreed on the need to extend humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people, accepted the central role of the UN, emphasized the necessity of a truly representative and inclusive government in Afghanistan and reiterated that Afghan territory should not become home to terror groups," the minister said.

He added that India's special relationship with Afghan people and UNSC Resolution 2593 would continue to guide New Delhi’s approach to Afghanistan.

"In this endeavour, India has committed to provide 50,000 MT of wheat and life saving drugs to the Afghan people as humanitarian assistance," he said.

The minister furhter informed that soon after the fall of Kabul, in the period from 16 to 25 August 2021, the government of India operated a number of special Indian Air Force and Air India flights under “Operation Devi Shakti” to evacuate 565 stranded Indian and Afghan nationals from Afghanistan.

A 24x7 Special Afghanistan Cell was set up in the Ministry of External Affairs to facilitate repatriation and other requests from Afghanistan, he added.