Fayaz Bukhari
Srinagar, June 29: External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid today said that India has been closely watching the developments related to the peace process in Afghanistan.
While addressing a Conference on Cooperation, Development, Peace and Security in Central Asia at Kashmir University here today, Khurshid said: “We have been watching with care and close scrutiny the developments in Doha (Qatar) about the possibility of a conversation and dialogue between the Taliban and High Peace Council of Afghanistan”, .
“We feel and we have said this to our friends, in the US and the European Union, that our collective decision which is very very strongly endorsed in Afghanistan that the peace talks must be Afghan led and Afghan controlled,” the Minister said.
Khurshid said it was not possible for anybody from outside to conjure a successful peace architecture for Afghanistan or any other part of the world “I believe that the peace must come from within. Despite repeated invitations, India believes it must restrain itself to a point which is consistent with our philosophy and allow the Afghan people to choose their own destiny,” he said.
The Union Minister said India will help in reconstruction and development of Afghanistan and expects the Government in that country to deliver on issues like drug trafficking, religious extremism and fundamentalism. “We will help them (Afghans) in completing the Parliament building, which will be ready in three months. We will help them build the dams, we will help them build the roads but they must populate the Parliament with the voices of Afghan people. We shouldn’t impose any preconceived notions of democracy. We can share our experiences but at the end it has to be their own decision,” he said.
“We also expect them to deliver on drug trafficking issues and fundamentalism and religious extremism. It is very important that we really understand religious extremism and fundamentalism are not something that hurts only one society. It is a fundamental challenge to our human values and aspiration for peace,” Khurshid said.
Governor, N N Vohra, his presidential address at the inaugural session of the 3-day Conference said that India’s centuries old relations with the Central Asian countries are deeply embedded in civilizational and cultural commonalities. He emphasized the need for strengthening these relations, keeping in mind the emerging challenges confronting this region, and the world at large, on varied fronts.
The Governor referred to his goodwill mission visits to the Central Asian countries in the early 1990s and the difficult situations which were obtaining in these countries at that time.
Vohra recalled the useful work done by the India International Centre, New Delhi, in the early years after the break up of the former Soviet Russia, to organize an international conference to bring out the history, culture and polity of the Central Asian States and to bring out a volume containing the papers presented by Indian and Central Asian scholars.
The Governor said that religious fundamentalism leads to extremism and violence, resulting in human and economic losses, disrupting educational schedules which adversely affect the education of youth. “Such challenges have to be addressed with mutual cooperation and deeper worldwide understandings”, he added.
While addressing the Conference, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah hoped that new Government led by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Pakistan will open its air space for the international flights originating from Srinagar International Airport.
“One hopes with a new dispensation in Pakistan, one hopes with encouraging voices emerging from new Prime Minister of Pakistan about normalising the relations to some extent between our two countries, perhaps this (use of airspace) is one aspect that can also be normalised,” Omar said.
Chief Minister said the flight distance between Srinagar and some of the capital cities of Central Asian republics is shorter than the distance between Srinagar and some larger cities in India. He said if Pakistan allows use of its airspace for international flights originating from Srinagar, the Srinagar airport can become an international airport in true sense.
“Unfortunately, because of the cussed mindset of our neighbour on the western frontier that does not allow a direct flight from Srinagar to overfly their airspace, we have not been able to take advantage of this connect that was available to us,” Omar said.
Chief Minister hoped that the international airport at Srinagar that currently exists only on paper, will become an international airport in operations as well. “And one day, the direct flights to one of these Central Asian countries will originate from Srinagar,” he said.
Omar said keeping in view of the geographical position of Jammu and Kashmir India will benefit from using the linkages with Central Asia from here.
“The policy of Ministry of External Affairs of Connect Central Asia will be ideally suited for Jammu and Kashmir because geographically we are the closest, spiritually we have a connect and almost every aspect of life in Kashmir, were you to scratch the surface, you will find a connection between us and Central Asia. Our heritage, language, culture, our architecture and the biggest connect is in our religion. Therefore, it is but natural that there will be an affinity between us and Central Asian republics,” Chief Minister said.
Omar said that the neighbourhood of the State has not allowed State to take advantage of the historic association that Kashmir has with Central Asia.
Chief Minister said the disadvantage for India is that there is no direct overland linkage to Central Asian countries and it passes through countries which at the best of the times can give us some amount of difficulty.
“Connecting to Central Asia through Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan is not easy but it is a challenge that we have to face,” Omar said.
Chief Minister said the developments in Afghanistan are being closely monitored in India in view of the withdrawal of the US and international troops from there. “In the days and months ahead, we will be looking very closely at the developments in Afghanistan. There are any number of people in my State who are saber rattling about the future of the move towards normalisation in Jammu and Kashmir in light of the 2014 withdrawal of the US troops from Afghanistan.”
“What effect that will have is now compounded by the dialogue that is sought to be started between the Taliban and the international community. One hopes international community learns from its mistakes and stops using other countries as an extended playground for their sphere of influence,” Omar said.
The Union Minister said that a stable Afghanistan and Iran are critical to India’s energy security as these two countries can provide greater access to Central Asian region which has abundance of hydrocarbon wealth.
“We are looking at re-energising the national North-South Corridor to connect India with Central Asia and Russia through Iran, we are looking at trans-Afghan routes using Iranian port of Chahabar particularly to get access to Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. We are looking at a rail link from Kazakhstan to Turkmenistan into Iran”, Khurshid said.
The Union Minister said: “Of course, it does make Iran very critical. On the other hand, it makes Afghanistan very critical. Therefore, we hope that within our philosophical approach of being friends, we get Afghanistan back to a stable situation. Afghanistan will then become a bridge for us to Central Asia and Iran as well.”
Khurshid said if India has to grow, it needs to look at alternative sources of energy which are clean as well as allow greater self-reliance. He said increasing the number of nuclear power plants can be one of the options but “whether we will be able to increase that is something that is still in the air. People have different view on nuclear power plants.”
Khurshid said the Government is working on several things, including a liberalised visa regime with Central Asian countries, to enable more convenient and liberal access to people on both sides to travel
Professor Talat Ahmad, Vice Chancellor, Kashmir University, in his welcome address, urged Salman Khurshid, for providing opportunities to the scholars of the CCAS for undergoing internship in the Ministry of External Affairs. He thanked the Governor and the Chief Minister for their valuable support in the growth of the University.
Dr. Rashpal Malhotra, Executive Vice Chairman, CRRID, dwelt on the activities of the organization and the aims and objects of organizing this Conference. He read out a message of the Prime Minister sent for this International Conference.
Dr S S Gill, Director General, CRRID, gave details of the establishment, evolution, history, growth and activities of the CRRID. He said that jointly organizing of this Conference by the CRRID and the Kashmir University is an indicator of long-term and sustained cooperation between the CRRID and the varsity.
Professor Aijaz Bandey, Director, CCAS, spoke about the work done by the CCAS over the past 35 years of its establishment and the publications brought out by it.
Among those present on the occasion were delegates of the Conference from within and outside the country, Deans, Heads of Departments, Faculty members, scholars and students.
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