New Delhi, October 10 (). Former Ambassador Anil Trigunayat met Afghanistan’s Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaki and India’s Foreign Minister S. Had an exclusive conversation with about meeting Jaishankar. He also expressed his opinion on how this visit will impact India’s foreign policy and relations with neighboring countries (especially Pakistan and China).
He said, “Instead of calling us the Foreign Minister of Taliban, we should call him the Foreign Minister of Afghanistan, because he is representing his country. Afghanistan and India have very old relations. Irrespective of whose government it is, India is the only country which has made the biggest contribution for the reconstruction, development of Afghanistan and for their capsule building. Even when Afghanistan was under the control of America, India also contributed about 3 Aid worth millions of dollars was given, big projects were given there. The Afghan people see, recognize and understand this very well. Even when there was a change of power there, the people there told the Indians that you do not need to go.”
He said that everyone has done factor recognition. You are engaging, talking and working with whatever government is in power there, but formal recognition will take some time.
He said, “regional stability is very important. Afghanistan has played a big role in this. India has always been concerned about the same because of the situation in Pakistan, it has used Afghanistan against India before and may try to do so again. We have seen that tension has increased between Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Foreign Minister of Afghanistan has said that any kind of terrorist activity against India. It will not happen from their soil. This is a huge assurance given and it was also a huge concern of India.”
He said that it is not about us right now. He has already said that terrorism of any kind will not be allowed to flourish on his land. When he came, the very first thing he said was that he would not allow terrorism against India to flourish from his soil and this was not the first time. When the terror attack took place in Pahalgam, Afghanistan was the first to condemn it.
The US Embassy in India has issued a clarification on media reports related to missile sales to Pakistan. On this he said that today many times it becomes very difficult to tell what is the truth because the news spreads so fast, but the news that has come from the White House or from somewhere is that these types of missiles are being sold to Pakistan. If he is not selling then it is very good, as his embassy has said. I don’t think India should be cautious about this.
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KK/ABM