By IANS,
New Delhi : Amid signs of vacillation by sections of the international community, India Wednesday called for a long-term policy of “invest and endure” in Afghanistan and warned that a failure to do so would be “costly” for the Afghan people and the world at large.
“What we believe Afghanistan needs is a long-term commitment, even while remaining mindful of the challenges,” Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said at an international seminar on Afghanistan here.
The seminar entitled ‘Peace and Stability in Afghanistan: The Way Ahead,’ organised by United Service Institution of India (USI), brought together scholars and experts from Afghanistan’s neighbouring countries and other stakeholders like the US and European countries.
“A sense of defeatism pervades certain sections of international opinion. This needs to be guarded against, because it runs the risk of encouraging insurgent groups, besides weakening the authority of the Central government and its institutions,” she said.
“The Afghan people have displayed resilience and a survival instinct even against the greatest odds. We must do our utmost to support them,” she said while emphasising the need for greater international assistance in supporting efforts of the Afghan government to improve security, governance and development.
“Failure in Afghanistan’s stabilisation will entail a heavy cost for both the Afghan people and the world at large,” she warned.
Rao said India will resolutely continue its policy of supporting Afghanistan through its multifarious reconstruction activities in that country.
“India has already made up its mind – invest and endure because we believe in the cause of peace, democracy and development in Afghanistan. We know that the friends of Afghanistan will do likewise,” Rao said.
“India remains fully committed to assisting our Afghan partners in the process of reconstruction, and economic and human resource development, as they build a prosperous, democratic and pluralistic Afghanistan,” she said.
Alluding to India’s developmental assistance of $1.2 billion for Afghanistan, Rao said it straddled all the socio-economic sectors of development: humanitarian; infrastructure; small and quick-gestation social projects; and skills and capacity development.
India is the sixth largest bilateral donor in Afghanistan. India has also heavily invested in promoting infrastructure development in Afghanistan, that includes a strategic 218 km Zaranj-Delaram road, wich was opened in January this year.
India has also set up the Pul-e-Khumri to Kabul transmission line and the sub-station at Chimtala which is supplying power to Kabul. “This has lit up Kabul, which has round-the-clock electricity supply for the first time since 1992,” Rao said.
Rao said two other important India-assisted projects, including the construction of the Salma Dam on the Hari Rud River in Herat and the Afghan parliament building, will be completed by the end of 2011.