India ‘watching carefully’ how situation in Afghanistan unfolds

Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said on Saturday India needs to be prepared to deal with any contingency that may arise out of a more volatile Afghanistan but that India is watching “carefully how the situation on the ground unfolds”.

In an interactive session at the India Today Conclave, Shringla also said India is willing to provide humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan.

“As far as humanitarian assistance is concerned, we, like many other members of the international community, have said that we separate what is in the welfare of the people of Afghanistan from the actions of the present dispensation in power,” he said.

“But there are (security) concerns out there and we have to be able to use our instruments of diplomacy or every instrument available to us to ensure that we are insulated from the impact of such outcomes that could be detrimental to our interests,” he added.

To a question on India”s engagement with the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA), Shringla referred to Indian envoy to Qatar Deepak Mittal’s meeting with IEA leader Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai in Doha in late August.

“We have got some reassurances and some sense of how they would like to see our involvement. I think they were quite positive in terms of our continued engagement on the development front and in retaining our diplomatic presence but what is important also is that we need to watch carefully how the situation on the ground unfolds,” he said.