In light of India’s extensive historical links with Afghan society, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said on Friday that a team of Indian diplomats, except the ambassador, had traveled to Afghanistan.
He said that because of the circumstances at the time, a group of Indian diplomats left the embassy in Afghanistan in August of last year, and they have now returned.
He claims that the Afghan employees employed there are still there and would be paid by India.
In Bengaluru, Mr. Jaishankar told reporters during an interaction program, “What we decided was that we would send the Indian diplomats back to the embassy, not the ambassador, and make sure that they can function and able to address a lot of these issues — humanitarian assistance, medical assistance, the vaccine, the development projects, etc.
So, Mr. Jaishankar stated, “Right now, all we have is a team of Indian diplomats who have gone there.
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The External Affairs Minister said, about Afghanistan, after the Taliban seized power on August 15 of last year: “We have taken a very considered deliberated view that our relationship at the end of the day is with the people of Afghanistan, to the society, and that it is a relationship which is deep enough and in a sense, historically long enough for us to find ways of factoring in these political changes and continuing that people-to-people, so we have done that. According to him, India provided Afghanistan with 40,000 tonnes of food grain at a time of “extremely acute need for wheat” during a food crisis.
Since we had to convince the Pakistanis to let them pass through Pakistan, which we accomplished, transporting wheat to Afghanistan “was also a highly delicate diplomatic operation,” the minister stated.
In addition, he said that India provided Afghanistan with the COVID-19 vaccination and took care of their medical needs by delivering drugs since India has established hospitals and clinics, including a pediatric hospital in Kabul.
Aside from this, India has completed other development projects in Afghanistan.
He described Chabahar as “still significant” when referring to the Iranian port city. “Pakistan may not always let me deliver supplies to Afghanistan, and there may be occasions when I do not wish to utilize that path. I shall thus utilize Chabahar, “said Mr. Jaishankar.
Chabahar, he said, “remains very much a factor, and it will remain a logistical center, which we will exploit, both for Central Asia and northward to Russia as well as for Afghanistan.”
