NEW DELHI: India cautiously welcomed Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s offertalks with the Taliban, though it underlined that there could be nocompromise with terrorism.
The offer was made at the second edition of the Kabul Process, aninternational attempt to bring peace to Afghanistan, ANI has reported.
Earlier India had expressed reservations about the Taliban, which isbacked by Pakistan.
Ghani’s ‘unconditional’ offer included a ceasefire, release of prisoners,and eventual recognition of the Taliban as a political party — provided itrecognised the Afghan government and respected the rule of law. Recently,the Taliban had announced that it would talk directly with the US, insteadof the “puppet regime” in Kabul.
India’s foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale, who was in Kabul for theconference attended by representatives from 26 countries, the EU, the UNand NATO, also met with Afghan and American leaders.
Gokhale conveyed that “India welcomed the Afghan government’s call to armedgroups to cease violence and join national peace and reconciliation processthat would protect the rights of all Afghans, including the women, childrenand the minorities” in a “inclusive, democratic and pluralistic nation freefrom the shadow of terrorism.”
Despite speculation that Gokhale would meet his Pakistani counterpartTehmina Janjua on the sidelines of the conference, there was apparently nosuch meeting in line with New Delhi’s policy that terror and talks cannotgo together.
As for Ghani’s peace offer, an official pointed out that apart from itbeing almost a ‘last ditch’ attempt to bring peace to Afghanistan, “it wasimportant to note that days earlier, Ghani, along with Indian Minister ofState for External Affairs M J Akbar, was in Herat for the inauguration ofwork on the Afghan portion of the 1800km-long TAPI pipeline.”
The proposed pipeline would pump gas from Turkmenistan to Afghanistan andthen on to Pakistan and India. Turkmenistan President GurbangulyBerdimuhamedov, Pakistani PM Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, and Gen. John Nicholson,commander of US Forces Afghanistan and NATO’s Resolute Support Mission,were among others present. “And all of them know there is no way that thepipeline could ever be operational without a buy-in by the Taliban,” theofficial said.