‘Contiguous neighbours’: India reaffirms support for Afghanistan, backs peace and development initiatives

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has reaffirmed India's commitment to the welfare of the Afghan people, saying on Tuesday that the central government remains focused on fostering peace betweeen the two nations, as well as stability and development in Afghanistan through humanitarian assistance, cooperation in development, as well as helping the country with capacity-building initiatives.

The comments were made by MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal, who was speaking during this week's media briefing. When asked about India's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Parvathaneni Harish's comments came during a UN Security Council meeting on Afghanistan.

"We had a meeting yesterday in New York where you see the permanent representative; he made a statement on the UNAMA briefing, where we have reiterated that India and Afghanistan are contiguous neighbours and civilisational states. Our ties have spanned centuries," Jaiswal said, as per an ANI report.

Jaiswal said that India has supported Afghanistan with food security, pharmaceutical assistance, healthcare, as well as scholarships for students and capacity-building opportunities.

"We stand in favour of peace and stability in Afghanistan and in the region so as to foster development and stability. We talked about our development cooperation, our long-standing friendship and the development cooperation that we continue to do in Afghanistan on the side of food security, medicine, pharma support and health," Jaiswal said.

He also said that the development programmes India has launched for Afghanistan has benefitted all sections of its society, including women and children.

"In many of our development cooperation programmes, it cuts across gender; it benefits people across the board, including women and children. We have also provided scholarships and capacity-building programmes to people of Afghanistan and these will continue," he added.

"Our position on Afghanistan remains as contained in the statement by our Permanent Representative. We want to foster peace and stability and we want to continue to work for the people of Afghanistan for their development and for their progress," Jaiswal further added.

What did Parvathaneni Harish say on Afghanistan?

Harish, while speaking at the UNSC meeting, described India and Afghanistan as 'contiguous neighbours' and 'civilisational states'. He highlighted India's assistance efforts in Afghanistan, saying that New Delhi's humanitarian and development initiatives extend across all 34 Afghan provinces through more than 500 development partnership projects focused on healthcare, public infrastructure and capacity building.

"India and Afghanistan are contiguous neighbours, and as civilisational states, our ties have spanned centuries. Our history of close cooperation continues to guide our modern-day relationship. The proud people of Afghanistan have endured a lot in this century and the Government of India will continue to stand in favour of peace and stability so as to foster development and stability in this nation. Our participation in the Doha working group meetings and our strong bilateral development partnership stand testimony to this promise," he said.

He also detailed India's recent humanitarian support, including flood-relief supplies, vaccines for child immunisation programmes, treatment of Afghan children with congenital heart diseases in India, and infrastructure projects such as maternity clinics, oncology centres and trauma centres.

"We thank our partner agencies, including UNICEF and the Afghan Red Cross Society, in this regard. Setting up an oncology centre, a trauma centre, and the soon-to-begin installation of advanced medical devices across hospitals and the construction of a 30-bed hospital in Kabul and a thalassaemia centre in Herat will provide much-needed healthcare support," he stated.