Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai concluded his first visit to Afghanistan for foreign office consultations after assuming office.
India has turned down Afghanistan's request for the supply of lethal weapons, saying it was not "either in a position or willing" to contribute lethal weapons right now, days after Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai raised the issue with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
"Op Devi Shakti in action! @IAF_MC flight with 24 Indian and 11 Nepalese evacuees from Kabul is on its way to Delhi. #DeviShakti," external affairs ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi tweeted in the morning.
Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday underscored Pakistan's importance in the peace process in Afghanistan and sought Islamabad's support for the reconciliation process in the war-torn country.
India's post 2014 Afghanistan policy appears to be glued to the best-case scenarios of a successful democratic transition. New Delhi hopes that it would remain 'business as usual' and would not necessitate a drastic revisiting of its continuing strategy. This, in short, is a strategy of convenience, says Shanthie Mariet D'Souza.
Hamid Karzai's visit also comes amidst a number of diplomatic developments in and around New Delhi
Afghanistan is ripe and ready for more investments from India and offers a lot of opportunities.
In a candid interview with news channel CNN-IBN, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai has stated that the earlier Pakistan realises the perils of nurturing terrorists, the better it was for India and Afghanistan. Here are some excerpts from the interview
Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai wants the elusive Taliban chief Mullah Omar to run for President in next year's election so that people could "vote for or against him".
'Afghanistan is a beautiful country but has no luck as far as lasting peace is concerned'
The long awaited strategic partnership agreement signed by United States President Barack Obama and his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai in Kabul reflects the common vision for a strong relationship between the two countries, a top American official has said.
Visiting Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Thursday assured the United States that with a strong security force, Afghanistan would not be threatened by terrorists from across its borders post-2014 when the America-led international force withdraws from the war-torn country.
Taliban militants based in Afghanistan have threatened to continue attacks on Pakistani security forces and government installations from sanctuaries in Kunar and Nuristan provinces. "We don't care if the (Hamid) Karzai government or North Atlantic Treaty Organisation forces decide to launch an operation against us in Kunar and Nuristan as this region has never been in control of the Afghan government and foreign forces," said Pak Taliban spokesperson.
Ashraf, who was accompanied by Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar, Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik, said he would raise the issue of cross-border attacks from Afghanistan on Pakistan with the Afghan leadership
As Afghanistan enters the endgame of its 13-year-long partnership with the United States, President Hamid Karzai has added a new twist to its reliable relationship with India by presenting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with a "wish list" for military equipment.
Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai arrived in the country on Monday on a three-day visit during which he will seek increased military aid from India and discuss recent cross-border clashes with Pakistan.
Close on the heels of Afghan President Hamid Karzai claiming that a suicide bomber who targeted his spy chief had come from Pakistan, Islamabad has said his government should share any information it has on the 'cowardly attack' to back up the allegation.
'The curtain is coming down on India's leadership role as a regional power even before the drama of the Asian Century truly began,' warns Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
For more than a decade, wads of American dollars packed into suitcases, backpacks and, on occasion, plastic shopping bags have been dropped off every month or so at the offices of Afghanistan's president -- courtesy of the CIA, a media report on Monday said.
India is expected to ink four pacts, including one in the field of mining with mineral-rich Afghanistan during the four-day visit of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who arrived in Mumbai on Friday.
India on Thursday approved small-scale projects worth $100 million for implementation in strife-torn Afghanistan.
Regional security situation and other key bilateral issues between India and Afghanistan will be discussed during the talks between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on November 12.
India on Tuesday assured that its assistance was neither "transitory" nor in "transition" to Afghanistan, which said it was looking forward to increasing training and capacity building of its security forces apart from equipping them with Indian help. The two countries also set in motion the implementation of the Strategic Partnership Agreement, inked last year during Afghan President Hamid Karzai's visit to Delhi, by launching the Partnership Council.
Hours after Afghan forces repulsed major suicide attacks by Taliban on Kabul, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai blamed "intelligence failures" for the assault, particularly on the part of US-led NATO alliance.
Karzai will hold comprehensive talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh after which the two countries are expected to ink a strategic pact to streamline the various assistance programmes of India and institutionalise bilateral security dialogue.
On Friday, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai claimed that former president Burhanuddin Rabbani's killing was plotted in the Pakistani city Quetta.
The strike by a Hellfire missile in Kabul on August 29, which was launched in an effort to kill ISIS-K planners, instead killed 10 civilians, he said.
Hamid Karzai has termed Prince Harry's remarks about killing Taliban fighters and comparing war to video games as a 'mistake', for which the Afghan President said the young British Royal should be forgiven.
Sixteen Afghans were killed by a 'rogue' United States soldier who walked off his base and opened fire on them in their homes in the early hours of Sunday morning. The dead include nine children and three women, plus five wounded.
United States President Barack Obama in a letter to Afghan President Hamid Karzai, regretted and apologised over the desecration of the Holy Koran at the Bagram Airbase.
A high-ranking Pentagon official on apologised to the Afghan leadership for the burning of the Quran by United States military personnel and also discussed the reconciliation process in the war-torn country.
Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai made a torrid attack on the Pakistani leadership in a face-to-face meeting with Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani and demanded that Islamabad produce top Taliban leaders to negotiate with him. Karzai confronted the Pakistanis at an official delegation-level talk on Thursday in Islamabad between the two countries on the sidelines of a trilateral summit meeting of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran.
Secret three-way talks between the United States, Afghanistan and Taliban have begun, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said.
India's immediate priorities have been the safe return of the Indians still in Afghanistan, bringing back the Afghan nationals who stood by New Delhi, and ensuring that Afghan soil is not used for terrorism directed at India
United States efforts to seek an end to the war in Afghanistan has reached a "critical juncture", American officials have said indicating that Obama's pointman Marc Grossman is rushing to the region to resume preliminary talks with the Taliban.
Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai on Monday said that Pakistan has a key role to play in his government's peace talks with the Taliban because the militant group operates from there. "They operate from there. And a meaningful peace process cannot go well or end in satisfactory results without Pakistan's participation and help," Karzai said. Karzai said he could not hold peace talks with Taliban unless the militants produce a verifiable authorized representative.
The Taliban were ready to start formal talks with NATO after the Bonn conference. Taliban representatives were given an assurance that they would be permitted to establish a diplomatic office in a Muslim country other than Pakistan.
"Not only this, but we also helped the citizens of our neighbouring countries to return to their country when the COVID-19 pandemic had struck, irrespective of caste, religion, class, area etc," said minister of state for defence Ajay Bhatt.
With NATO nations firming up their exit path from Afghanistan, the president of the war-torn country, Hamid Karzai, sought "constructive cooperation" from Pakistan for holding talks with the Taliban and to deny safe havens to militants on the border.
In an apparent snub to Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, his United States counterpart Barack Obama on Monday did not mention Pakistan in his opening remarks at the NATO Summit meeting on Afghanistan and instead welcomed the presence of officials from the Central Asia and Russia.
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