New Delhi: - Deputy Chief of Mission M. Ashraf Haidari was invited to discuss Indo-Afghan relations at a seminar on “Afghanistan-India: Building Bridges Post-2014,” co-organized by the JNU School of International Studies Center for Inner Asian Studies and the Shift Series, on August 4, 2015. Other speakers included MP Fawzia Koofi, Chairperson of Women’s Affairs Commission of the Afghan Parliament.

“Jawaharlal Nehru University has consistently hosted seminars and conferences on the many converging interests and historical ties of India and Afghanistan, for which we are profoundly grateful, as well as for the University’s own long-term commitment to educating and enabling a new generation of Afghans to lead and own the stabilization and sustainable development processes of our country, in the years and decades to come,” said Mr. Haidari.

He noted that the government and people of Afghanistan had made significant progress since the fall of the Taliban, in spite of the ongoing violence and conflicts imposed on the country from outside. “These monumental gains in the Afghan polity, economy, and society would have been impossible without the continued support of the international community, especially without the assistance of our trusted friends and strategic partners like India, the United States, NATO, and others,” said Mr. Haidari.

He added that “despite its own multiple domestic needs, India is Afghanistan’s sixth largest donor, and has provided us with some $2 billion in effective aid since 2001. India’s well-targeted aid programs include infrastructure development, institutional capacity building, small development projects, as well as food security assistance in the form of ongoing deliveries of wheat to Afghanistan.”

He pointed out that since 2001, more than 10,000 Afghan students had studied in India on ICCR scholarships, of which some 7,000 had returned home armed with education and technical skills, driving ahead Afghanistan’s stabilization and development. “Also, a large number of mid-career employees of different institutions of our Government have benefited from the technical capacity building programs of ITEC and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, while some 8,000 Afghan students are self-financed, pursuing degrees in different fields across India,” said Mr. Haidari.
“And I am glad to report that two of India’s signature infrastructure projects, the building of the Afghan Parliament in Kabul and the Salma Dam in Herat, are near completion. The former would soon give our MPs the secure space they need to further institutionalize democracy in Afghanistan, while the latter would generate 42 MW of much needed power for electrification of rural and urban Herat, as well as helping irrigate 80,000 hectares of agricultural land,” Mr. Haidari remarked.

On the shared concerns of Afghanistan and India, Mr. Haidari noted that “last April, President Ghani and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had very frank and fruitful discussions on the challenges confronting Afghanistan, India, and the rest of the region.” He added that the two leaders agreed that terrorism posed a significant threat to regional stability, which Afghanistan should no longer fight alone on behalf of the rest the region.
“The recent Summits of Shanghai Cooperation Organization and BRICS in Ufa, Russia, also discussed the intertwined threats of radicalism, terrorism, and criminality, all of which have converged in Afghanistan, destabilizing the country with far-reaching security implications for the whole region,” said Mr. Haidari.

“As President Ghani said in the BRICS and SCO Summits, Afghanistan occupies ‘a prominent place in the narrative and activities of terrorist organization networks; they are betting on our failure and should we fail, three of our neighbors, China, India, and Russia, out of the big countries, will be in harm’s way, but also all our other neighbors, near and far,” pointed out Mr. Haidari.

“To prevent such a likely scenario from materializing, especially in light of increased presence of DAESH-IS in Afghanistan, the President called on the three key regional players to join in a ‘forceful and coherent action’ against any threats that undermine the security and stability of the region,” Mr. Haidari said and noted that the President “strongly recommended that the BRICS adopt a comprehensive strategy to overcome terrorism, since international actions have so far been ‘partial and fragmented,’ while terrorists such as DAESH have moved ‘with coherence, determination, and decisiveness.’”

In addition, Mr. Haidari discussed the details of six MOUs of commercial, consular and mutual legal assistance cooperation, which the two leaders agreed to in April, to be signed between Afghanistan and India within the coming months. “As you see, Afghanistan and India have much to do together in the coming months and years. “The framework, within which these programs and projects should be implemented, is the Strategic Partnership Agreement (SPA), which we signed with India in 2011, said Mr. Haidari.

He added that “the second meeting of the India-Afghanistan Council for Partnership, which is the implementation mechanism of the SPA, should meet in the near future, following which the meetings of the Joint Working Groups of the SPA would take place in Delhi and Kabul to help address the issues that were discussed between the President and the Prime Minister last April.”

Mr. Haidari concluded his address by noting: “Personally and professionally, it has been a distinct honor for me to advance the shared interests of Afghanistan and India over the course of my diplomatic service in Delhi. In the months and years ahead, I am very confident that our already multi-faceted bilateral relations will only grow, in line with our two nations’ historic ties and the key objectives of Afghanistan-India Strategic Partnership Agreement.”