External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj shakes hands with her Afghan counterpart Salahuddin Rabbani prior to their meeting in New Delhi on Monday. Photo: Mukesh Aggarwal

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 11

Agreeing to provide further assistance to Afghan national defence and security forces, India today asserted its relationship with Afghanistan was an “article of faith”. Both sides signed four pacts, including motor vehicles agreement, and new development partnership in 116 high-impact projects.”For India, strategic partnership and friendship with Afghanistan is an article of faith. It is not just another relationship or an engagement, but a spiritual and civilisation connect,” External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said at a joint statement with her Afghan counterpart Salahuddin Rabbani.At the conclusion of the 2nd Strategic Partnership Council meet here, the Afghan Foreign Minister said India had further agreed to provide assistance to Afghan national defence forces and that his country had been pressing for greater assistance in defence supplies and capacity building.Afghanistan, he said, had long been pressing for greater Indian assistance in defence supplies and capacity building. Last year, India gave four MI-25 attack helicopters to Afghanistan to augment its fleet as NATO forces reduced its presence.  “We jointly agreed to embark on a New Development Partnership in keeping with the priorities of Afghanistan, 116 new High Impact Development Projects would be jointly implemented that would bring socio-economic and infrastructure development,” said Swaraj.She said India would assist in Shatoot dam and drinking water supply project for Kabul; low-cost housing for returning refugees; water supply network for Charikar city; polyclinic in Mazar-e-Sharif, among others. Focus, she said, would continue on building governance and democratic institutions; human resource capacity and skill development, including in the areas of education, health, agriculture, energy, administration, application of remote sensing in resource management and space technology in governance.Underscoring the importance of connectivity and transit for Afghanistan, Swaraj said an air freight corridor was started in June 2017 to provide direct access to farmers of Afghanistan to the Indian markets. “’We are expediting the development of Chahbahar Port in trilateral cooperation with Iran. We will begin supply of wheat to Afghanistan in coming weeks through the port,” Swaraj said.Both sides also discussed steps to enhance trade and investment cooperation and the India-Afghanistan trade and investment in Delhi later this month will provide an opportunity to bring businesses together. In addition, India has liberalised visa for Afghan businessmen. The visiting dignitary asserted that Kabul’s friendship with New Delhi did not mean hostility to any other country, adding that it was not a zero-sum game.

Ties with Kabul ‘article of faith’

• For India, strategic partnershipand friendship with Afghanistan is an articleof faith. It is not just another relationship oran engagement, but a spiritual and civilisation connect. We jointly agreed to embark on the New Development Partnership in keeping with the priorities of Afghanistan. —Sushma Swaraj, External Affairs Minister