Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai has made a special plea to Pakistan to support the country's reintegration plans. "We ask all neighbours, particularly Pakistan, to support our peace and reconciliation endeavours," Karzai told a London conference on Thursday.
India's development efforts in Afghanistan provide "more bang per buck" and the international community should take some lessons from it, British High Commissioner Richard Stagg said in New Delhi on Friday.
SM Krishna needs to talk to his own establishment on the direction of India's Af-Pak strategy.
The London Conference on Afghanistan will be an occasion which India could use to showcase its massive humanitarian efforts in war-ravaged countries, which many diplomats believe is "undervalued" and little understood by the international community. India is providing US $ 1.3 billion in aid to improve infrastructure, education and medical health of the beleaguered country.
United States along with other European countries are ignoring India's role in Afghanistan in their effort to appease Pakistan, a prominent American foreign policy magazine has said.
The London Conference on Afghanistan held recently has evoked differing reactions in the Indian media. At one extreme it has been welcomed as providing an effective solution to the Afghan problem, even though it may entail the return of Mullah Omar to power in Afghanistan, and at the other extreme it has been criticised not only for paving the way for the return of the Taliban but also for enhancing Pakistan's influence in Afghanistan at India's cost.
'Their offices are in Pakistan. Some of their hideouts are in Pakistan,' says Afghan envoy Masood Khalili.
In an unprecedented admission by the Barack Obama administration, United States Secretary of State John Kerry has acknowledged that in some cases American spying has gone too far, but asserted that innocent people have not been "abused" through the secretive surveillance programme.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances