India Post News Service
NEW DELHI: In the wake of a flurry of developments in recent times, India is closely followinng monitoring the peace process in Afghanistan, the External Affairs Ministry said Thursday.
“As a close neighbour and an important stakeholder in Afghanistan, we are closely following the developments related to the peace and reconciliation efforts in Afghanistan,” ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said at his weekly media briefing here.
“US side briefs us on their talks from time to time,” Kumar said.
“We are also in regular consultations with other active players like all political forces in Afghanistan, Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and China on this issue.”
Earlier this month, speaking at a European anti-corruption conference, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani had said that the time is right for peace in his country.
The Taliban had refused to hold talks with Ghani regarding him as a representative of the US running an illegitimate government.
However, after a series of talks in recent days between the US and the Taliban in Doha, Qatar, both sides claimed significant progress.
Following this, the US, Russia and China held their third consultation in Beijing on the peace process in Afghanistan and also welcomed Pakistan to get involved in it, a move observers say has not gone down well with India.
“China, Russia, and the United States welcomed Pakistan joining the consultation and believe that Pakistan can play an important role in facilitating peace in Afghanistan,” the US State Department said in a statement July 12.
In his briefing Thursday, Kumar said that India Friday will exchange views with the Special Representative from Germany who is responsible for intra-Afghan dialogue.
“We believe that all initiatives and processes must include all sections of the Afghan society, including the legitimately elected government,” he said.
“Any process should respect the constitutional legacy and political mandate and should not lead to any ungoverned spaces where terrorist and their proxies can relocate.”
Stating that India supported a national peace and reconciliation process which is Afghan-led, Afghan-owned and Afghan-controlled, the spokesperson said that New Delhi is “quite confident that our points of view will be part of any peace and reconciliation process in Afghanistan”
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