New Delhi: - On April 16, 2014, Deputy Chief of Mission M. Ashraf Haidari discussed Afghanistan’s stabilization concerns and development priorities at a Round-Table on “Regional and Political Security” hosted by the Security-risks.com at the United Services of India. On the first day, the Round-Table participants, which included Delhi-based Coalition and Pakistan defense attachés, discussed “Afghanistan: Contemporary Perspective and the Way Ahead” and “Afghanistan: Indian Perspective and Future Plans.” Mr. Haidari was accompanied by the Afghan Attaché to India, Colonel Massoud Stanikzai.
Mr. Haidari agreed with the general view among the participants that Afghanistan remains under constant terrorist attacks carried out by the Taliban with operational sanctuaries in Pakistan. He noted that regional security is being affected by pursuit of zero-sum policies, with terrorism used to implement such policies, in the region, which continue destabilizing Afghanistan. He noted that Afghanistan is firmly committed to non-interference in the affairs of its neighbors, based on the 2002 Declaration of Good Neighborly Relations, signed by Afghanistan’s six neighbors. He also noted that every strategic partnership agreement the country has so far signed with other countries is committed to non-interference in others’ affairs, based on reciprocity under international laws.
Moreover, he added that the region had much to lose by not cooperating sincerely with one another. On stabilization and reconstruction of Afghanistan, while thanking NATO for its ongoing contributions, he said that Afghanistan was encouraging regional ownership of resolving their security challenges. In that light, he said that Afghanistan was welcoming recent bilateral and trilateral dialogues involving India, China, and Russia on their shared interests in a stable Afghanistan free from external threats of terrorism and extremism.
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