Saturday, September 17, 2016
Kabul (BNA) India has pledged to assist $1 billion to Afghanistan as part of its efforts to further boost up their strategic partnership and strengthen all-round cooperation.
The announcement was made the other day during President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani’s visit to New Delhi, the presidential office said in a statement.
In the meeting, both leaders expressed pleasure at the close and regular consultations between Afghanistan and India at all levels, which have served to guide their bilateral relations, the statement further said.
In a statement issued after meeting President Ghani, Prime Minister Narendra Modi pledged the financial help to back India’s “abiding support for a unified, sovereign, democratic, peaceful, stable and prosperous Afghanistan”, the statement added.
War-torn Afghanistan needs international support to rebuild its economy, but such efforts are frustrated by continued violence. Both leaders expressed “grave concern at continued use of terrorism and violence in the region for achieving political objectives”, the statement continued. Recalling that India-Afghanistan bilateral development cooperation has assisted Afghanistan’s own efforts for successful political, security and economic transitions, the two leaders noted with happiness the recent completion of major milestones such as Parliament Building and the Afghanistan-India Friendship Dam.
The President stressed the significance of the Prime Minister’s assurance conveyed during the joint inauguration of Storay Palace on 22 August 2016 via a video link that 1.25 billion people of India firmly stand with their Afghan brothers and sisters. “Forty years of violence would have broken any other country,” Ghani said in a speech to Institute for Defense Studies and Analysis, a government-funded think tank, declaring himself “delighted” with Modi’s aid pledge. “No one can impose war on us,” President Ghani said in the institute, adding the regional countries through a clear strategy should jointly cooperate in fighting terrorism. President Ghani also said that while armed conflict posed a great threat, it was also vital to build market institutions that could lift living standards in a nation where 70 percent of people live on less than $2 a day.
Both leaders reaffirmed their resolve to counter terrorism and strengthen security and defense cooperation as envisaged in the India-Afghanistan Strategic Partnership Agreement.
The leaders expressed satisfaction over signing of the Extradition Treaty, the Agreement on cooperation in civil and commercial matters and the Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation in Peaceful Uses of Outer Space during the President’s visit. It was also stressed that expeditious implementation of the trilateral agreement involving Afghanistan, India and Iran, signed in May 2016, using Chabahar will augment connectivity within and of the region. In this context, the leaders appreciated the recent decision taken by the three countries to convene a joint forum involving important stake holders, including from business and industry. Both leaders welcomed intensification in the interaction involving India and Afghanistan with regional and other countries and international organizations to foster peace, stability and development in Afghanistan. They appreciated, in particular, the outcome of the India-Iran-Afghanistan trilateral consultations and looked forward to the resumption of India-US-Afghanistan consultations in New York later this month. The Prime Minister conveyed to the President Ghani that his country would continue to engage with the international community to assist the government of Afghanistan in all possible ways.
