New Delhi India on Thursday backed Afghanistan amid the country’s stalled peace talks with Pakistan aimed at resolving spiralling tensions that led to border clashes, with New Delhi saying that Islamabad was angered by Kabul’s efforts to exercise sovereignty over its territories.
Pakistan’s efforts to “practice cross-border terrorism with impunity” is unacceptable to its neighbours, external affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told a weekly media briefing even as reports suggested that Pakistan and Afghanistan had agreed to resume peace talks in Istanbul at the request of Turkiye.
India had come out strongly in support of Afghanistan amid the latter’s clashes with Pakistan earlier this month, saying Islamabad has a history of sponsoring terrorism and blaming neighbours for its internal failures.
“Pakistan is infuriated with Afghanistan exercising sovereignty over its own territories. Pakistan seems to think that it has the right to practice cross-border terrorism with impunity. Its neighbours find it unacceptable,” Jaiswal said in response to questions about Pakistan defence minister Khawaja Asif’s remarks that Afghanistan is acting at the behest of India.
“India remains fully committed to the sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of Afghanistan,” Jaiswal said.
{{/usCountry}}“India remains fully committed to the sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of Afghanistan,” Jaiswal said.
{{/usCountry}}The border clashes between Pakistan and Afghanistan erupted while Taliban foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi was visiting India earlier this month. The deadly clashes between the two former allies began after Pakistan launched air strikes against targets inside Afghanistan, including the capital Kabul. One of the strikes reportedly targeted a Pakistani Taliban commander though he survived.
Talks brokered by Qatar and Turkiye led to a ceasefire on October 19, and Afghan and Pakistani negotiators assembled in Istanbul for further talks but could not make a breakthrough. Clashes between the Pakistan military and Pakistani Taliban continued throughout the ceasefire, with multiple fatalities reported on both sides this week.
On Thursday, Pakistan and Afghanistan agreed to resume talks in Istanbul at the request of Turkiye.
Amid the stalemate, Asif accused Afghanistan of acting at the behest of India to spread terror in Pakistan. “I believe that the negotiations were sabotaged,” Asif said. “The people in Kabul pulling the strings and staging the puppet show are being controlled by Delhi.”
Asif also said that if Afghanistan mounts any more attacks on Pakistan, Islamabad’s response will be “50 times stronger”. He also said on social media that Pakistan “does not require to employ even a fraction of its full arsenal to completely obliterate the Taliban regime and push them back to the caves for hiding”.
Jaiswal responded to another question on whether India will help the Taliban regime in its plans to build dams on Afghanistan’s Kunar river by saying that the joint statement adopted during Muttaqi’s visit states that India stands ready to support all efforts by Afghanistan directed towards sustainable water management, including hydroelectric projects.
There is a long history of cooperation between India and Afghanistan on water matters, including the Salma Dam or the India-Afghanistan Friendship Dam in Herat province, he said.