India welcomed Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani’s outreach to the Taliban at the Second Kabul Conference on Wednesday. Representing India at the conference, Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale met Mr. Ghani as well as Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani and National Security Advisor Hanif Atmar, the Ministry of External Affairs said.
“The Foreign Secretary conveyed that India welcomed the Afghan government’s call to armed groups to cease violence and join national peace and reconciliation process that would protect the rights of all Afghans, including the women, children and the minorities,” an MEA statement said.
“There can be no compromise with terrorism and action must be taken against those who continue down the path of violence and those who finance them and provide safe havens and sanctuaries,” it added.
A senior official told The Hindu that India backs the peace talks, but wants action against any members of the Taliban and their sponsors who don’t join the process.“We support the offer to start peace talks. We also maintain that those who refuse [them] must be acted against, as also their sponsors and financiers,” the official said.
The government’s position is consistent with India’s support to an “Afghan-led, Afghan-owned and Afghan-controlled reconciliation process, within the framework of the Afghan Constitution and the internationally accepted red lines”.
However, India has always held reservations about the success of talks with the Taliban, especially the Quadrilateral Coordination Group (QCG) that had included the U.S., China and Pakistan as well.
Mr. Ghani’s offer came a month after US President Donald Trump had ruled out talks with the Taliban, in the wake of a deadly series of attacks by the Taliban in January including a suicide bombing in Kabul that killed 103, and a siege at the Intercontinental hotel in which 43 people died.
“We must develop a system to classify international terrorist networks and organizations; and we must develop criteria for dealing with states who rely on terrorist networks as instruments of foreign policy,” Mr. Ghani told the conference, although the peace offer document released by his government took a softer line on the Taliban, calling for “compassion to understand the perspective of the combatant,” and “conviction, and courage in dealing with the Taliban.”
