India seeks clarity from Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani on peace negotiations with Taliban

NEW DELHI: PM Narendra Modi on Tuesday took an indirect dig at Pakistan for encouraging cross-border violence in Afghanistan and suggested that such actors should rather have a constructive approach, even as he assured support to meet Kabul’s defence requirements.

With Ashraf Ghani, who is on his maiden trip to India as Afghan President, by his side, Modi indicating that the issue of peace process involving the Taliban and the role of Pakistan in that context figured prominently in their discussions.

Sources said India sought clarity from Ghani on peace talks with the Taliban that has implications for the region’s stability. After supplying three military helicopters to Kabul earlier this month, India told an Afghan delegation that they should "let their defence requirements be known" to India, an official said.

Ghani had cancelled his predecessor’s wish-list to India for defence equipment. However, sources said, the two sides are contemplating to repackage the deal besides India increasing capacity-building programme for Afghanistan’s armed forces.

The two sides are working to frame a new defence mechanism. ET was the first to report that Delhi and Kabul were working towards a new defence partnership.

Sections of the Indian establishment had been wary of the importance given by Ghani to Pakistan and China and the Afghan president’s reliance on Islamabad to ensure peace in his country.

Foreign affairs experts here claim that Pakistan’s inc reasing presence in Afghanistan will allow the Taliban to consolidate its position in that country, besides threatening India’s interests there as well as security in the sub-continent.

The previous Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, was seen more lenient to India’s interests. "We have a shared interest in the success of an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned process," Modi said in a joint press conference with Ghani.