MEA reiterates India's commitment to peace and development of Afghanistan

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla held talks with prominent Afghan leader Ata Mohammad Noor on Wednesday, October 21. As per an MEA spokesperson, the main topic of discussion was the intra-Afghan peace talks and the increasing incidents of violence in Afghanistan.

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India wholly committed to the betterment of Afghanistan

A day after the talks, the Ministry of External Affairs released a statement wherein it stated that India is and will continue to be committed to the reconstruction and the development of Afghanistan. Earlier, Jaishankar had also stressed India's commitment to long-lasting peace in Afghanistan.

At the moment, the Afghan government and Taliban leaders are holding direct peace talks in Doha, Qatar in a bid to end decades of war in the conflicted nation. India has already invested close to $2 billion into Afghanistan for reconstruction and aid purposes and is a major stakeholder in the peace and stability of Afghanistan.

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Back in February the United States had signed a deal with the Taliban wherein the US would move its troops out of the country and in exchange, the Taliban would swap prisoners with the Afghan Government. After months of delay due to the Afghan government's hesitation to release the last batch of prisoners, the peace talks finally commence in September.

At the start of the talks, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the talks were a ‘historic opportunity’ to bring about an end to the decades-long war in Afghanistan. However, the United States Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad on October 6 stated that the current levels of violence in Afghanistan are "too high" and were not beneficial to the peace processes.

(With PTI inputs, Image PTI)

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