Official Indian delegation visits Kabul, discusses humanitarian assistance and use of Chabahar port
| 2024-11-08
Representative image.
Long-standing ties with the people of Afghanistan will continue to guide India's approach towards the country, says MEA
In a significant development, an official Indian delegation visited Afghanistan earlier this week and held high-level meetings with top Afghan leaders, including Acting Defence Minister Mullah Muhammad Yaqoob (son of Taliban founder Mullah Muhammad Omar) and former President Hamid Karzai.
The delegation, led by JP Singh, Joint Secretary (Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran) in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), visited Kabul on November 4-5, 2024.
During the visit, Singh had several meetings with senior Afghan Ministers, including with the acting Defence Minister. He also called on former President Hamid Karzai and met the head of UN agencies there, MEA Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in response to a question at the weekly media briefing on Thursday (November 7, 2024).
“They had discussions on the humanitarian assistance that we are providing to people in Afghanistan, as also how the Chabahar port can be utilized by the business community in Afghanistan for transactions and for export and import and any other thing that they would like to do for (them),” he explained.
Jaiswal used the opportunity to explain that providing humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan was an important part of India's assistance programme. In the recent past, India had dispatched several shipments of humanitarian assistance, which includes 50,000 metric tonnes of wheat, 40,000 litres of Malathion pesticide, 30 tonnes of medicines and 28 tonnes of earthquake relief aid.
“We have had long-standing ties with the people of Afghanistan and these ties will continue to guide our approach towards the country,” the MEA Spokesperson stated.
While India has not formally recognised the Taliban regime after it assumed power in August 2021, its embassy in Kabul remains operational and a technical team has been stationed there since June 2022, primarily to assist with humanitarian aid.
“In order to closely monitor and coordinate the efforts of various stakeholders for the effective delivery of humanitarian assistance and in continuation of our engagement with the Afghan people, an Indian technical team has reached Kabul today and has been deployed in our Embassy there” the MEA said after the team reached Kabul on June 23, 2022.
The delegation, led by JP Singh, Joint Secretary (Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran) in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), visited Kabul on November 4-5, 2024.
During the visit, Singh had several meetings with senior Afghan Ministers, including with the acting Defence Minister. He also called on former President Hamid Karzai and met the head of UN agencies there, MEA Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in response to a question at the weekly media briefing on Thursday (November 7, 2024).
“They had discussions on the humanitarian assistance that we are providing to people in Afghanistan, as also how the Chabahar port can be utilized by the business community in Afghanistan for transactions and for export and import and any other thing that they would like to do for (them),” he explained.
Jaiswal used the opportunity to explain that providing humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan was an important part of India's assistance programme. In the recent past, India had dispatched several shipments of humanitarian assistance, which includes 50,000 metric tonnes of wheat, 40,000 litres of Malathion pesticide, 30 tonnes of medicines and 28 tonnes of earthquake relief aid.
“We have had long-standing ties with the people of Afghanistan and these ties will continue to guide our approach towards the country,” the MEA Spokesperson stated.
While India has not formally recognised the Taliban regime after it assumed power in August 2021, its embassy in Kabul remains operational and a technical team has been stationed there since June 2022, primarily to assist with humanitarian aid.
“In order to closely monitor and coordinate the efforts of various stakeholders for the effective delivery of humanitarian assistance and in continuation of our engagement with the Afghan people, an Indian technical team has reached Kabul today and has been deployed in our Embassy there” the MEA said after the team reached Kabul on June 23, 2022.
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