India has direct interest in Afghanistan: Nirupama Rao

Boston : India has a direct interest in Afghanistan not just to counter the influence of Pakistan but also to fight the terrorist groups of the region aiming India, Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said here on Monday.

“We have a direct interest in Afghanistan, not because we see it as a theatre of rivalry with Pakistan but because of the growing fusion of terrorist groups that operate from Afghanistan and Pakistan and their activities in India,” Rao said at a South Asia Initiative talk on India’s Global Role in Harvard University.

“Indeed, developments in Afghanistan over the past few years have demonstrated in ample measure that peace, security and prosperity in today?s world is indivisible, and that therefore, the international community in Afghanistan must stay the course,” she said.

“Our development partnership, which has received wide appreciation of the Afghan people, has been guided primarily by the needs of the Afghan government and people. We stand by this commitment despite the grave threat under which our personnel and people are working in Afghanistan to transform the lives of ordinary Afghan people,” she said.

Rao said India is supportive of the US efforts to fight terrorism in Afghanistan and to bring stability there.

Indian assistance to Afghanistan amounting to over $ 1.3 billion has helped build vital civil infrastructure, develop human resources and capacity in the areas of education, health, agriculture, rural development, etc, she said.

On Pakistan, Rao said: “Our relationship with Pakistan has been complicated by the issue of terrorism and the need for Pakistan to take ameliorative action to eradicate terrorism against India.”

“Despite this threat, we understand well the Kautilyan advice that a great power loses stature if it remains bogged down in neighbourhood entanglements,” she said.

” We are determined to persevere in our dialogue with Pakistan in order to resolve outstanding issues so that our region will be stable, and so that the rationale of economic development in an atmosphere of peace, for all of South Asia remains our steadfast goal,” she said.

Speaking on the SAARC region on the whole, Rao said the close and contiguous geographies “we share with our seven neighbours who together with us make up the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation or SAARC, compel increasing acknowledgement and recognition of the common destiny we share when it comes to issues such as food security, health, poverty alleviation, climate change, disaster management, women?s empowerment, and economic development”.

“Today, with sustained high economic growth rates over the past decade, India is in a better position to offer a significant stake to our neighbours in our own prosperity and growth,” she said.

“We have made unilateral gestures and extended economic concessions such as the facility of duty free access to Indian market for imports from Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka. We have put forward proposals multilaterally within the framework of the SAARC where we have assumed asymmetric responsibilities,” she said.