Proud Afghans snub Pakistan aid, back India against terror

Later, addressing a press conference, Jaitley, who headed the Indian delegation, said the declaration recognizes terrorism as the biggest threat to peace and stability and demands immediate end to all forms of terrorism and all support, financing, safe havens and sanctuaries to it.

Ghani shared India’s concern on cross-border terrorism emanating from Pakistan and said the world needed to fight the “menace”.

“Afghanistan suffered the highest number of casualties past year”.

“This is unacceptable. Some still provide sanctuary for terrorists”.

Talking about Amritsar, he said the city used to be a centre of commerce and business which connected India to Central Asia, Russia and beyond.

The Finance Minister said a well-connected Afghanistan will be economically vibrant and prosperous and also politically stable.

His strong response came after India and Afghanistan hit out at Pakistan for sponsoring and supporting terrorism and called for “resolute action” against terrorists as well as their masters.

It is also essential that we support the Afghan Government as it strives to create the conditions for a durable peace. “The evil of terrorism, which threatens not merely one or two countries but our entire region, has made the current year the worst in a very long time”, the minister said.

At the conference, he said he presented in his statement “an objective assessment of the challenges” Pakistan and Afghanistan were facing at present and highlighted the importance of a politically-driven solution.

“Both leaders agreed to operationalise the additional amount of one billion United States dollars for bilateral cooperation especially in capacity building, skill development, infrastructure building and connectivity linkages, including through a possible air corridor between India and Afghanistan to overcome obstacles to promotion of bilateral trade”, Mr Swarup was quoted by news agencies as saying in Amritsar.

The nations also agreed to collaborate closely in removing non-tariff barriers to trade, establishing and implementing bilateral and multilateral regional transit-trade framework agreements while underlining the “urgent” need to integrate expansion of existing bilateral trade and transit through the land route.

Aziz, after returning to Pakistan, said his country was ready for talks with India to discuss all issues including Kashmir and rejected the notion that Kashmir was not a problem.

“In this regard, India is willing to receive Afghan trucks on its territory, at Attari. These students go back and help transform and reconstruct Afghanistan”.

Hailing India’s role in Afghanistan’s transition, he said “India’s assistance is transparent and with no strings attached”, adding “there are no hidden deals between India and Afghanistan”.

During the meeting, Afghanistan is also likely to seek enhanced supply of military hardware from India to strengthen its armed forces.