New Delhi:Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday called for an immediate and comprehensive ceasefire in Afghanistan to end a spike in violence, as the two countries signed an agreement for building a dam to supply water to Kabul city.
Modi expressed concern over a surge in violence in Afghanistan at a virtual meeting with President Ashraf Ghani, saying both countries want a region free of terrorism. Ghani sought guarantees for a stable Afghanistan and, in an apparent reference to Pakistan, said the world must ask all stakeholders to “stop giving sanctuaries and stop interfering in the affairs of their neighbours”.
External affairs minister S Jaishankar and his Afghan counterpart Haneef Atmar signed the memorandum of understanding for building Lalandar or Shatoot dam, which will meet the drinking water needs of two million people in Kabul, provide irrigation water to nearby areas and rejuvenate irrigation and drainage networks.
The project is a sign of India’s continuing commitment to Afghanistan against the backdrop of the troubled peace process with the Taliban and a sustained wave of violence targeting officials, civil society activists and journalists in cities across the war-torn country. The agreement was signed on a day when eight people were killed in four targeted attacks in Kabul.
“We are concerned by the increasing violence in Afghanistan. Innocent citizens, journalists and activists are being targeted in a cowardly manner. We have called for an immediate end to violence and we support an immediate comprehensive ceasefire. Violence and peace counteract each other and both cannot co-exist,” Modi said, speaking in Hindi.
“From Badakhshan to Nimroz and from Herat to Kandahar, I want to assure all Afghan brothers and sisters that India is standing with you. On every step of your journey of patience, courage and resolve, India will stay with you. No external force can stop Afghanistan’s development or India-Afghanistan friendship,” he said.
Modi said the two countries, as close neighbours and strategic partners, “want to see a region free from the problems of terrorism and extremism”, and New Delhi backs a peace process that is Afghan-led, Afghan-owned and Afghan-controlled.
Ghani referred to India’s role in efforts to usher in peace in Afghanistan and said: “We are in an open moment of history, a moment of great opportunity and simultaneously and unfortunately, [of] great threat…” India, he added, has provided “principled support for the end state of a sovereign, democratic, united Afghanistan”.
Regional and international consensus on guarantees for a stable and prosperous Afghanistan is essential, Ghani said. “We must ask the world to ask all stakeholders to respect the rules of sovereignty in international relations, stop giving sanctuaries and stop interfering in the affairs of their neighbours,” he said, in an apparent reference to Pakistan’s role in the region.