Taliban coup will lead to pariah state: Blinken
NEW DELHI: India and the US on Wednesday made a concerted push for immediate intra-Afghan negotiations to end the violence in Afghanistan, and find a political settlement that ensures the country doesn’t become a base for terrorists or pose a threat to regional stability.
External affairs minister S Jaishankar and secretary of state Antony Blinken said after their meeting that both sides had agreed negotiations were the only way to create a lasting solution. Blinken referred to atrocities committed by the Taliban in areas the group had taken over and said an Afghanistan that didn’t respect the rights of its people would become a “pariah state”.
Addressing a joint media interaction, Blinken and Jaishankar outlined plans for future cooperation in the fight against Covid-19 and post-pandemic recovery – including an additional outlay of $25 million by the US to support India’s vaccination programme – and defended their collaboration under the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or Quad, in the face of China’s strong criticism of the grouping.
Blinken, the third senior leader of the Biden administration to visit India this year after defence secretary Lloyd Austin and special representative for climate action John Kerry, also met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and national security adviser Ajit Doval.
Modi expressed appreciation for Biden administration’s initiatives related to the Quad, Covid-19 and climate change. He said the societies of the US and India share a deep commitment to the values of democracy, freedom and liberty, and noted the bilateral strategic partnership will be of even greater global significance in the coming years in the context of economic recovery and climate action.
Blinken and Modi also discussed regional challenges and a growing range of cooperation on Covid-19 response efforts, shared values and democratic principles, and regional security, including through the Quad consultations, the US state department said.
Jaishankar said there was “much more convergence” between India and the US on finding a lasting settlement in Afghanistan that takes into account the country’s diversity. The world wants an Afghanistan at “peace with itself and with its neighbours”, but the country’s independence and sovereignty will “only be ensured if it is free from malign influences”, he said.
An “unilateral imposition of will by any party...can never lead to stability” and such efforts cannot acquire legitimacy, Jaishankar said. Stressing the need to preserve gains made by Afghanistan in the past two decades in terms of human rights and social freedoms, he added: “Afghanistan must neither be home to terrorism nor a source of refugees.”