New Delhi: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday held a meeting with Zalmay Khalilzad US special representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation in Delhi in presence of National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla.
US special envoy on the Afghan peace process Zalmay Khalilzad arrived India in the evening on Tuesday and met top Indian officials to brief Delhi on the intra-Afghan talks that started on Sunday in Doha. He had visited India in May this year and met External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and NSA Ajit Doval.
Today’s meeting comes after Jaishankar on Saturday said Afghan soil should never be used for anti-India activities and supported the need for an immediate ceasefire in order to establish long-lasting peace with Afghanistan.
US Special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad appreciated India’s participation in the Intra-Afghan Negotiations (IAN) held in Doha on 12 September. Zalmay said US and India share the view that peace process must continue until there is agreement on a political roadmap over comprehensive and permanent ceasefire. He also added that Afghan side should ensure their territory must not be used by any terrorist group against any other country.
Taking to Twitter, EAM Jaishankar said, “Glad to receive Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad @US 4AfghanPeace this evening. Useful discussions on the Doha Meeting and its follow-up”.
The Afghan government remains grateful to India’s commitment and solidarity with Afghanistan, the country’s acting foreign minister Mohammad Haneef Atmar said on Saturday during the talks.
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India on Saturday attended the start of the intra-Afghan talks in Doha where External Affairs minister S Jaishankar joined-in virtually where he said that the peace process must be Afghan-led, Afghan-owned and Afghan-controlled.
According to sources, Zalmay, in his short four-hour-long trip to India, will share details of the Afghan peace process, appreciate India’s constructive role in Kabul for the past 20 years.
Pakistan has been deeply concerned about India’s participation in the intra-Afghan talks at Doha but the US, its other allies and the Afghan government has been deeply appreciative of India’s reconstruction effort.
During the Afghan peace talk in Doha, the Afghan Government’s 21 member team was led by Masoom Stanekzai, a former intelligence chief. The Taliban was led by Mawlavi Abdul Hakim, the terror group’s chief justice and a close aide of the group’s chief Haibatullah Akhunzada.
It is pertinent to note that US special envoy for Afghanistan reconciliation Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad on Monday visited Islamabad and met Pakistan Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa and discussed the Afghan peace process among other issues.
According to reports, Khalilzad arrived in Pakistan on Monday after the first round of the intra-Afghan talks, aimed at deciding the future political system in Afghanistan and to end the decades-long war, took place on September 12 in Doha.
