New Delhi: - Chargé d'Affaires-ai & Deputy Chief of Mission M. Ashraf Haidari was invited to participate in the International Youth Summit for Next Generation World, organized by the World Organization of Students & Youth (WOSY) in New Delhi on February 20-21, 2015. Second Secretary Safiullah Delawar accompanied Mr. Haidari, while a large number of Afghan students, studying across India, attended the two-day Summit. Indian Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj participated as Chief Guest in the Summit, and delivered keynote remarks, discussing India’s foreign policy objectives.
Mr. Haidari discussed the topic of “Connecting the SAARC Youth to the World,” and noted that it was foremost necessary that the youth leaders of South Asia first connect with each other within their own region, while working together to establish cooperative partnerships with the rest of the world. “Even though our region is blessed with more than adequate natural and human resources, as most of our countries’ populations—one third of the whole world population—are young, whose energy and genius could be harnessed to lift up our societies, abject poverty remains widespread across the SAARC region,” he said. He added that South Asia is one of the least connected regions of the world, as member states of the SAARC trade more with the countries of other regions than among themselves.
Mr. Haidari pointed out that a lack of regional cooperation to address the challenges confronting all SAARC countries was due to realpolitik underpinned by a “zero-sum” mindset. “While other regions and zones of proactive regional economic cooperation, such as EU, NAFTA, ASEAN, and others are operating in the 21 st century, harvesting the fruit of their cooperation based on a “win-win” paradigm, our region sadly remains bogged down in the 19 th century and its destructive politics,” he said. However, he pointed out that there are many opportunities for overcoming the existing interstate tensions and hostilities that continue blunting regional economic growth. “India and China constitute a great example of gradually resolving their differences, while largely focusing on an economic agenda that serve the interests of both countries on the long run, and this approach can be applied to normalization of Indo-Pakistan relations, which would not only benefit the two countries but also the rest of the region,” Mr. Haidari added.
Moreover, Mr. Haidari highlighted the 36-year suffering of the Afghan people, and noted that Afghanistan had always tried to maintain friendly ties with all its neighbors. “In the last SAARC Summit in Nepal, our President, Dr. Ashraf Ghani drew the attention of the SAARC leaders to the fact that ‘confrontation’ no longer serves the interests of anyone in our region. It’s only through cooperation that can we address the problems facing us, while exploiting the countless opportunities for projecting our region forward in an increasingly interdependent world,” he noted.
Mr. Haidari thanked the Government and people of India for continuing to support Afghanistan’s stabilization and sustainable development. “The presence of so many Afghan youth in this Summit is a manifestation of India’s commitment to securing the future of Afghanistan, enabling us to progress and move forward with the rest of the world, and we are eternally thankful for this Indian assistance, despite the country’s own domestic needs,” he added. Mr. Haidari encouraged the Afghan students to make the best of their time in India, working hard to prepare for leading the development process of Afghanistan on return home.
In addition, Mr. Haidari and Mr. Delawar separately met with the Afghan youth participants, and discussed with them the services the Embassy daily provides to Afghan students, whom Mr. Haidari said were one of his key priorities during his tenure in India. The students discussed some of their basic expectations and technical problems, which Mr. Delawar noted for assistance.
Visa Section:
General: