Last Saturday Doha witnessed the intra-Afghan negotiations finally after much delay. India decided to participate for the first time where an official has addressed a gathering including the Taliban. U.S. Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad, who is the driving force behind the American push for a reconciliation process said that, the participation of Indian delegation was an important step as, they were always said by India that there must be an Afghan owned and Afghan led process and the FM restated that stand in his address.
He also mentioned that their main focus is 2-fold, one is seeing an arrangement in Afghanistan which has wide support. Note, that’s not old-age Afghanistan, including all races, cultural groups, political forces and groups, after-9/11 generations, females and civilized society. Only for agreement to succeed, they should have everyone on deck, and the ensuing democratic order should be integrated.
Secondly, given the dynamic nature of Afghanistan as well as the position of economies in the area and even beyond, neighbours and international powers must back the arrangement. The global community must support the settlement reached by Afghans, and promote growth, economic trade and communication with Afghanistan. They have to make absolutely sure that Afghanistan is not a danger to other nations and then becomes a centre of global growth.
He informed me that, so far, they’ve had nice, positive, and warm experiences. The delegations gathered as a complete team after opening remarks, and set up communication committees to determine the policies and procedures again for talks. A draught has been generated as well as further discussions will be held to finalise the protocols and to lay down the agenda. So well, so far.
