The US and Russia, both strategic partners of India, have been at odds over how to bring stability in the landlocked nation amid recent efforts by the Ashraf Ghani government to invite the Taliban for talks
New Delhi: India will raise the issue of cross-border support to terrorism when representatives of the US, Russia, China, Iran and central Asian and Gulf nations meet in Tashkent next week to review efforts to make Afghanistan safe and move it forward.
Minister of state for external affairs MJ Akbar will represent India at the March 26-27 meet, which was convened by Uzbekistan’s president. Akbar is expected to underline India's call for stopping all forms of cross-border support to terror groups in Afghanistan, where it has not only been working to restore peace but is also engaged in several economic projects.
War-ravaged Afghanistan has seen a spurt in terror attacks, mostly blamed on the Taliban, in the last one year which has left hundreds dead and injured. The US and Russia, both strategic partners of India, have been at odds over how to bring stability in the landlocked nation amid recent efforts by the Ashraf Ghani government to invite the Taliban for talks.
The meet is significant as it will bring together senior officials or ministers from the US and Russia on the same table along with Iran, an exercise which is not common in international politics.
The Tashkent meet, or Tashkent process, will also seek to explore ways to expand Afghanistan's connectivity to the world through Central Asia and Iran, much to India's comfort, according to persons familiar with the process. The Tashkent initiative complements the Moscow and Kabul processes on Afghanistan.
Ahead of the meet, India has expressed its support for the Afghanistan government's offer to the Taliban to participate in a peace process without preconditions and called for international backing for Kabul's reconciliation efforts.
"These efforts of the Afghan government calling on the armed groups to cease violence and join the national peace and reconciliation process that would protect the rights of all Afghans, including women, children and the minorities, deserve our full support," India's permanent representative to the UN, Syed Akbaruddin, told the Security Council last week.
He described the Afghan government's "new call for peace" as "a concrete approach to the Taliban to join the mainstream" that was made "despite the fact that armed groups have identified themselves and demonstrated to all of us that they are the irreconcilables."
On February 28, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani had offered a wide-ranging peace package to the Taliban at an international conference in Kabul.
Last month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered Ghani new development projects in his country. The PM's commitment through the letter was carried by foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale when he participated in the Kabul Process. India has extended assistance to build the Kabul dam at an estimated cost of about $200 million.