Welcoming United States’ extended commitments in Afghanistan, India
said on Wednesday that it was not “complaining” about not finding a mention in President Barack Obama’s Af-Pak policy speech and was “pleased” that military pressure on Taliban will not be eased there.
“India is not complaining at all,” Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor told reporters when asked if India was feeling ‘left out’ on not being mentioned in Obama’s speech.
“What you are overlooking is that our Prime Minister has just been there. He received a pretty thorough exposition of the US’ views on the issue and President Obama called him up in Delhi yesterday to brief him further before his public speech in the US,” he added.
Pointing out that India has always maintained that it doesn’t have a direct involvement in Afghanistan, Tharoor said, “American abbreviation for their policy is Af-Pak and I see India in neither of those two abbreviations. Afghanistan and Pakistan are the focus of this policy and focus of President Obama’s speech.”
Tharoor welcomed US’ continued commitment in Afghanistan and said India was “very pleased that pressure on Al-Qaeda and Taliban in Afghanistan and on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border will not be eased.”
US has announced sending 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan for containing insurgency and securing key population centres there.
Tharoor said that continued military pressure on Taliban and Al-Qaeda was an extremely important security component of the challenges faced by Afghanistan.
Refusing to comment on details of the US President’s speech, Tharoor said, “It (Af-Pak policy) is the overall approach of continued engagement and focus on dealing with the every real security dangers faced by Afghanistan.”
Tharoor said India believed that entire international community has a stake in continued stability of Afghanistan and success of the Hamid Karzai government in establishing his authority through out the country.
He added that India was making contribution in Afghanistan in a different way by building roads, hospitals, clinics and laying down power supply lines there.
Name of Source: Express India