India, Uzbekistan vow to fight terror
NEW DELHI: India and Uzbekistan on Friday called for settling the conflict in Afghanistan through an Afghan-controlled process even as they committed themselves to fighting terror by destroying terrorist safe havens, infrastructure and funding channels. The peace process in Afghanistan must preserve the achievements of the past two decades, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said while participating in a virtual summit with Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev.
“We agree that the restoration of peace in Afghanistan requires a process that is led, owned and controlled by Afghanistan itself,” he said, speaking in Hindi. India and Uzbekistan have “similar concerns about extremism, fundamentalism and separatism” and both sides stand together against terrorism, he added in his opening remarks.
The two sides signed nine agreements and memorandums of understanding (MoUs) during the summit, including on a dollar credit line between the Export-Import Bank of India and the Uzbek government and another on digital technologies.
A joint statement issued after the summit said the two leaders believe peace and stability in Afghanistan is of “great importance to the security and stability of the entire region”. The two sides called for settling the Afghan conflict through an “Afghan-led, Afghan-owned and Afghan-controlled peace process”, and expressed unanimous support for a “united, sovereign and democratic” Afghanistan.
Modi and Mirziyoyev strongly condemned all forms of terror and “reaffirmed the determination of their countries to combat this menace by destroying terrorist safe-havens, networks, infrastructure and funding channels”, the joint statement said.