JOIN USModi, Ghani resolve to fight terrorism
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani held bilateral talks here on Tuesday, even as the US asked Pakistan to stop supporting Taliban and other terror organisations in Afghanistan.
Modi and Ghani discussed a range of regional and global issues and expressed a firm resolve to end the menace of terrorism, Raveesh Kumar, spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, said.
Ghani earlier had a meeting with President Ram Nath Kovind, who strongly condemned the recent terror attacks in Afghanistan, which have resulted in over 200 innocent people being killed.
“We can fully empathise with the ongoing quest of the Afghan people to secure peace,” Kovind told Ghani, adding, “India believes that whatever initiatives are taken for bringing peace in Afghanistan should be Afghan-led and Afghan-controlled.”
The Afghan president is on a day-long visit to New Delhi – just a day after US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met him in Kabul to discuss the new US policy on Afghanistan.
Tillerson said the US had made a specific request to Islamabad to “take action to undermine the support” that the Taliban received in Pakistan.
India also agreed to extend “further assistance” to Afghanistan to help it expand the capability of its armed forces to fight the terrorists.
External Affairs Minister, Sushma Swaraj, called on the Afghan president soon after his arrival in New Delhi.
Ghani and Modi reviewed the entire gamut of multifaceted bilateral strategic partnership, including the New Development Partnership, which New Delhi and Kabul agreed upon on September 12 last.
The prime minister and the Afghan president also held consultations on “furthering the shared objective of promoting peace, security, stability and prosperity in Afghanistan and efforts to combat the menace of terrorism.”
The Afghan president is visiting New Delhi ahead of his proposed tour to Islamabad on an invitation from Pakistan Army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa. The Modi-Ghani meeting on Tuesday was the first opportunity for the two leaders to exchange views on the new US policy on Afghanistan.