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India calls for UN-led ‘comprehensive and permanent’ ceasefire in Afghanistan
“It is crucial that the international community and this council presses for a permanent and comprehensive ceasefire to ensure immediate reduction in violence and protection of civilian lives,” India’s external affairs minister S Jaishankar said during a UNSC debate
India on Tuesday called for a UN-led “permanent and comprehensive ceasefire” in Afghanistan in view of a recent escalation in violence, saying peace talks have not delivered the desired result and the country has witnessed targeted attacks on religious and ethnic minorities, women, journalists and civil rights activists.
“It is therefore crucial that the international community and, in particular, this council presses for a permanent and comprehensive ceasefire to ensure immediate reduction in violence and protection of civilian lives,” India’s external affairs minister S Jaishankar said during a UN Security Council debate on the situation in Afghanistan.
“We support a leading role for the United Nations, since that would help improve the odds for a lasting and durable outcome,” he said.
The minister reiterated India’s calls for immediate dismantling of terrorist safe havens and disruption of terrorist supply chains. “There needs to be zero tolerance for terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, including its cross-border one,” Jaishankar said.
The UN secretary general’s report on the situation in Afghanistan submitted last week noted that “security incidents remained at high levels, with the number of civilian casualties increasing by 29% in the first quarter of 2021 in comparison with the same period in 2020”.
The report said that though Afghanistan has continued to try to “foster unity around the peace process”, efforts to reinvigorate the negotiations have slowed following the postponement of talks scheduled to take place in Istanbul because the Taliban want to wait until US and Nato troops have left the country.
Foreign troops are in the process of exiting Afghanistan with a deadline of September 11 announced by US President Joe Biden for complete withdrawal.
Biden is scheduled to meet Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah, who leads the High Council for National Reconciliation, at the White House on Friday amid growing concern about the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan.
“As we’ve said from the very beginning, while there is a schedule, we are mindful that that schedule could fluctuate and change as… conditions changed too,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said on Monday in response to a question about the Taliban’s advances in Afghanistan.
He added, “It is a dynamic situation and we said from the outset that we’re going to treat it as such… if there need to be changes made to the pace or to the scope and scale of the retrograde on any given day or in any given week, we want to maintain the flexibility to do that.”
As a key stakeholder in the reconstruction of Afghanistan, India has been concerned about the post-withdrawal situation and has called for urgent efforts to ensure that the gains made over two decades of the presence of foreign troops are not squandered.
Reiterating India’s longstanding support for an Afghan-led, Afghan-owned and Afghan-controlled peace process, Jaishankar said, “If the peace process is to be successful, then it is necessary to ensure that the negotiating parties continue to engage in good faith, eschew the path to find a military solution, and fully commit towards reaching a political solution. A tangible demonstration of this commitment is required.”
The minister recalled the development work done by India in Afghanistan since 2001 - more than 550 community development projects; a recent MoU to build the Shatoot dam; operationalisation of the Chabahar Port in Iran; and humanitarian assistance of 75,000 MT of wheat to Afghanistan via that port.
Also, India sent across Covid-19 vaccines to Afghanistan, bilaterally as well as through the Covax global distribution facility.
