India seeks end to external interference in Afghanistan

Istanbul, Nov 2 (PTI) Demanding an end to external interference in Afghanistan's internal affairs, India today stressed the need for "an Afghan-led, Afghan-owned and Afghan-driven process" and said issues regarding safe havens and sanctuaries beyond Afghanistan's borders have to be addressed. On its part, Afghanistan termed the cooperation with New Delhi as a "turning point" and pitched for a bigger role for India in the region for desirable resons. India's External Affairs Minister S M Krishna, addressing those present at the 'Istanbul Conference on Afghanistan: Security and Cooperation in the Heart of Asia', including Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari, said recent history has shown that an end to Afghanistan's suffering requires an end to external interference in its internal affairs. "Issues regarding safe havens and sanctuaries beyond Afghanistan's borders have to be addressed...need a road map that follows up our conclusions to address the challenges," he said. He also lamented that in the decade since 2001 when the international community took up the stabilization and development of Afghanistan, the role that regional countries could play in bringing stability to Afghanistan has not been given adequate importance. Addressing the Conference, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said "Cooperation with India will be a turning point in the long journey towards achieving substantive, meaningful and rewarding cooperation for all in the region" while noting that Indo-Afghan Strategic Partnership will not only benefit his country but also the entire region. He said India can play a much bigger role in the region for desirable reasons and that India was driving the global economy along with China and Russia. The global conference is aimed at mapping out the future of war-torn Afghanistan after Western troops' drawdown and was being attended by nearly 20 countries. Krishna pointed out that as NATO-ISAF prepares to drawdown its combat role in Afghanistan by the end of 2014, it is evident that Kabul's regional neighbours and friends can work with the wider international community to provide it a helping hand to assist it in the transition and beyond. Noting that critical requirements for Afghanistan are security, good governance and development, he said it needs "our assistance to build its capacity to tackle the critical challenges of terrorism including suicide terrorism, the religious extremism that fuels it, and the drug trafficking that sustains it." He said all should work simultaneously on economic cooperation along with political, security and other confidence-building measures that could ensure peace and stability for Afghanistan and through it for the entire region. "Our vision for this period of transition must take into account of the conditions on the ground and the capacity of Afghanistan's security forces to preserve the independence and the integrity of their nation. "We also need to overcome the deficit in trust through regional cooperation linked to a larger vision of how our region relates to the world," he said. India was kept out of last year's regional conference in Istanbul at the insistence of Pakistan, resulting in New Delhi lodging a protest with Turkey. Krishna said India's partnership does not look at Afghanistan and the region in competitive terms but is based on a vision of regional economic cooperation spanning all the countries in the vast theatre radiating out from the Heart of Asia. The cooperation would be founded on trade and transit routes, railways and highways, energy pipelines and electricity networks and cross-investments, he said. The Minister also talked about the idea of linking South and Central Asia and recalled the historical roots of regional trade routes. He said "New Delhi believes in a strong, independent, sovereign, stable, united, democratic and prosperous Afghanistan at peace with itself and its neighbours." Krishna also noted that as a developing neighbour itself, India has pledged up to USD 2 billion in development and humanitarian assistance apart from inking a comprehensive Strategic Partnership Agreement with Afghanistan looking at 2014 and beyond. PTI