Taliban: Asked India to finish its growth tasks in Afghanistan

THE TALIBAN regime in Afghanistan has requested India to finish the event tasks it had began in that nation, Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi stated on Sunday.

“We are hopeful that with the upgrading of the diplomatic mission, we will move forward from the humanitarian aspect to development aspects. And in that area, our priority that we’ve also conveyed to the Indian side is that of the completion of some of the incomplete projects that India has done, as a first step,” Balkhi stated in an interview with The Indian Express — a day earlier than the primary anniversary of the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.

August 15 has been declared a vacation however celebrations by the Taliban regime will probably be low-key, restricted to an official media occasion. The essential occasions might happen on September 1, the day the final international troops left Afghanistan final yr.

Balkhi named the Shahtoot Dam in Kabul as one of many tasks that the Taliban wished India to finish. “India has a lot of different projects, and they are incomplete. And we have urged them to complete those because if they are not completed, all of it will go to waste,” he stated.

India not too long ago reopened its embassy in Kabul, a yr after it was shut down and all personnel evacuated within the wake of the August 15, 2021 Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. The mission is manned by a director-rank IFS officer, who’s the officiating deputy chief of mission, and 4 different officers. A contingent of ITBP has additionally been flown over for the safety of the embassy.

On Saturday, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had stated in Bengaluru that India’s determination to restart the mission was to assist the Afghan individuals by offering humanitarian and medical help and that India wished to assist in the realm of vaccine growth.

India’s growth help to Afghanistan is estimated to be value nicely over $3 billion throughout 20 years, together with key roads, dams, electrical energy transmission traces and substations, and colleges and hospitals.

Although Delhi has not made any statements but about growing its diplomatic presence in Kabul, Balkhi issued a press release on Saturday, saying the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA), the formal identify for the Taliban regime, “welcomes India’s step to upgrade its diplomatic representation in Kabul”. He stated the regime would guarantee safety and supply “all cooperation”.

He reiterated on Sunday that “security assurances, diplomatic immunities and all the other necessary steps” had been given to India to improve the embassy.

“We are moving in a very positive direction [with India]. They have reopened the embassy, they have sent their diplomats, they are looking at upgrading the level of representation here in the embassy, we have reopened flights between India and Afghanistan. We are working on letting Indian flights also come to us and currently there is Kam Air that has flights with India,” he stated.

Balkhi stated commerce with India has “doubled”, and “we’re hopeful that moving forward through dialogue and engagement, we will address the remaining problems and concerns and reach a better stage”.

The IEA additionally desires India to work on connectivity tasks, Balkhi stated, “because we need to connect Central Asia to South Asia. Afghanistan is the closest and most efficient route when it comes to the area of connectivity”.

He stated with the intention to revive connectivity by means of Iran’s Chabahar port, the Taliban regime is “trying to revive the trilateral mechanism. We have sent our proposal and our messages to the Indian and Iranian sites. And they are open to reviving the Chabahar route”. The Taliban regime can also be eager to revive the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline venture.

In response to a query on Pakistan’s denial of entry over the land path to Afghanistan, he stated this was “a matter between India and Pakistan… From our side, we are open to all countries to realise the full potential of Afghanistan when it comes to investments, minerals, trade, transit and connectivity”.

Balkhi, who lived overseas for a number of years and speaks English fluently, stated the IEA “do not take as fact the claims of the United States” on the presence of the Al Qaeda chief Ayman Al Zawahiri or his killing in Kabul two weeks in the past. He stated the official investigation introduced by the regime was nonetheless ongoing.

Reminded a few UN report flagging the presence of Al Qaeda and different terrorist teams together with people who had been a direct concern to India, comparable to Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Toiba, Balkhi stated the UN had a “track record” of “untrue reports” on Afghanistan. He pointed to a report within the New York Times a few new evaluation by US intelligence businesses that Al Qaeda has not regrouped in Afghanistan and doesn’t immediately have the flexibility to hold out assaults.

“But the important thing is that the government of Afghanistan has a policy, which is that no individual or group will be allowed to use the territory of Afghanistan to threaten the security of others,” he stated.

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Asked if the Taliban had a proper place on the Kashmir challenge, the spokesman stated: “The policy of the new government of Afghanistan is that we do not interfere in the internal matters of other nations. And we do not allow others to interfere in the internal matters of Afghanistan.”

Asked if it was the Taliban’s place that Kashmir was India’s inside challenge, he stated: “We consider it an internal issue of Kashmir and all the other relevant sides.”

He stated the “best way” that Indian issues in regards to the Taliban might be addressed was “through engagement and through dialogue and interaction”.