New Delhi: Afghan Foreign Minister Mohammad Haneef Atmar arrived in New Delhi on Monday on a three-day visit on the back of a new push by the US to speed up the peace process in Afghanistan.
Atmar is scheduled to hold talks with Indian foreign minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday on the way forward in the peace process and also on strengthening bilateral cooperation.
India has backed the Ashraf Ghani government in Kabul against the backdrop of efforts by the previous Trump administration to push through a peace process between the Ghani government and the rebel Taliban that would enable US troops to withdraw from the war torn country by May after a two decade long stay.
In February 2020, the US and the Taliban signed a peace deal under which the US was to withdraw its troops as the Taliban and Afghan government headed by President Ashraf Ghani started talks on sharing power. The Taliban-Afghan talks officially started in September but spiraling violence event through the winter months – seen as a time when attacks by insurgent groups would ebb – slowed the process. With the Biden administration coming in, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken earlier this month in a letter to Ghani had proposed talks at the UN with India, Russia, Iran, the US, Russia, Pakistan and China to evolve a solution to the Afghan stalemate. This move was to be in tandem with efforts to speed up a settlement with the Taliban.
Atmar’s visit comes days after Russia hosted a conference between the Afghan government and the Taliban in Moscow, and pressed for a ceasefire in the war-ravaged country.
"Arrived in beautiful & historic city of Delhi for a 3-day working visit," Atmar in a Twitter post. The Afghan foreign minister said he was looking forward to holding talks with Jaishankar and senior Indian officials on the Afghan peace process as well as on security and economic cooperation.
The Afghan peace process was part of the discussions that Jaishankar had with US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin during the latter’s visit to New Delhi on Saturday. Last month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had called for an immediate and comprehensive ceasefire to end violence in Afghanistan.
India has pledged more than $ 3 billion in aid and reconstruction activities in the country. New Delhi has been supportive of a national peace and reconciliation process which is Afghan-led, Afghan-owned and Afghan-controlled. New Delhi has also been cautioning for the need to ensure that the peace process does not lead to any "ungoverned spaces" where terrorists and their proxies can relocate. Simultaneously, New Delhi has been engaging all sections of the political spectrum in Afghanistan besides urging them to work together to meet the aspirations of the Afghan people.
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