India wants to engage with "government of people of Afghanistan" for development cooperation: MEA

Referring to Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri's recent meeting with Acting Afghan Foreign Minister, Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal noted that this was the "highest level of engagement" between the two nations.

Notably, FS Misri met the Acting Afghan FM in Dubai, earlier this month, marking a significant step in enhancing the level of engagement between the two countries since the Taliban's takeover of Kabul in 2021.

"We have a technical mission in Kabul. We have had engagements at the Joint Secretary's level, several of them, in the past year or so...This was the highest level of engagement that we have had, and we have clearly spelt out that we want to do more to offer humanitarian assistance and also to engage with the government of the people of Afghanistan on development cooperation," Jaiswal said in a press briefing today.

Jaiswal further elaborated that India seeks to continue its long-standing relationship with Afghanistan by strengthening humanitarian and developmental support.

"Both these counts we want to continue to build on what we are doing there to strengthen our longstanding relationship with the people of Afghanistan. We also want to do more in sports. You would have seen there are several cricket players from Afghanistan who play here in the Indian Premier League (IPL), Greater Noida also happens to be the homeground. So these - all these are the areas where we want to build our relations so that we can bring more benefit of our approach, of our humanitarian assistance, of our engagement on developmental cooperation front."

During the meeting, FS Misri reiterated India's commitment to provide further humanitarian and development assistance to the Afghan people.

India has also agreed to promote trade and commerce, including through Chabahar port. It will also extend its support to the health sector and rehabilitation of refugees in the country.

India, in its bid to support the Afgahn people, has so far dispatched several shipments consisting of 50,000 MTs of wheat, 300 tons of medicines, 27 tons of earthquake relief aid, 40,000 litres of pesticides, 100 million polio doses, 1.5 million doses of COVID Vaccine, 11,000 units of hygiene kits for the drug de-addiction programme, 500 units of winter clothing and 1.2 tons of stationery kits, etc, according to the MEA.

Further being asked about the political developments in Canada in the wake of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau declaring his intent to resign as the Canadian PM, the MEA spokesperson said India is keeping a "close eye" on the developments.

"A lot of political developments are going on in Canada. We are keeping a close eye on them. India and Canada enjoy a very deep relationship with each other...We hope that the relationship will remain strong and India will be ready to take any step in this direction," Jaiswal further said.

Earlier this month, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that he would resign as leader of the Liberal Party and as Prime Minister as soon as a new candidate is found for the post. He said that the Canadian Parliament would be prorogued or suspended until March 24. (ANI)