NEW DELHI, Apr 29:
Underlining that India’s engagement with Afghanistan has neither an expiry date nor a timeline, President Pranab Mukherjee has said the relations between the two countries go beyond political and strategic considerations.
In his speech at the banquet hosted in the honour of Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani yesterday, Mukherjee said India is Afghanistan’s first strategic partner.
“Our engagement with Afghanistan… Has neither an expiry date nor a timeline. As a friend and neighbour, India will always stand firmly beside Afghanistan,” the President said.
“We remain deeply conscious that Afghanistan’s unity, independence, security and stability are critical – not only for itself – but also for India and for peace and progress in our entire neighbourhood,” he said.
The President said to this end, strategic partnership between the two countries looks to strengthen and diversify our bilateral engagement in the coming years, including by forging a more robust trade and investment relationship between our private sectors.
Terming the visit of Ghani as “special”, Mukherjee said this time, he is visiting India as a leader of the National Unity Government in Afghanistan, as President of a proud nation with whom India has a cherished history of profound cultural, religious and civilisational bonds.
“We believe that the enduring trust and mutual understanding between India and Afghanistan go beyond political and strategic considerations. Our shared history and geography are a compelling factor in nurturing our close ties,” Mukherjee said.
The President said India is happy that bilateral cooperation, rooted in the age-old bonds of friendship between the two peoples, has been so constructive and fruitful.
He said because of this historical reality, there has been strong and sustained support in India for our engagement with Afghanistan in its post-conflict economic reconstruction effort.
“Over the last fourteen years, India and Afghanistan have effectively implemented a number of projects for the reconstruction of Afghanistan. In 2011, our countries signed a Strategic Partnership Agreement to provide a carefully conceived architecture for our multi-faceted dialogue and collaboration,” he said.
In a statement, Press Secretary to Mukherjee Venu Rajamony, quoting Ghani, said, “For many Afghans who grew up in the 1950s, India was not the country that was ‘over there’. It was part and parcel of how they learned their values, sense of history and commitment to building a free and just nation.”
“For the children of 1950s Afghanistan, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru were not just distant figures. They were inspiring writers whose texts gave a generation of Afghans their understanding of the oppressive nature of British colonialism, of India’s noble quest for freedom, and the profound commitment to justice that inspired that heroic generation of leaders,” Ghani said.
“Afghanistan thanks India for its assistance and for the promise of future cooperation that will help Afghanistan achieve self-reliance within a neighbourhood of partners committed to the principles of democracy, development and mutual security,” it said.
“President Ghani said despite difficulties, Afghanistan can be a critical partner for India for the project of building an integrated Asian powerhouse that is to come. Afghanistan is not just metaphorically but literally located in the heart of Asia,” the statement said.
The statement said with commitment, investment, peace, railways, pipelines, highways, fiber-optic networks and the ideas and people that will connect Central, South and West Asia to each other and with the market centers of the world can more easily flow through Afghanistan than through any other route. (PTI)
Follow our WhatsApp channel
