DAILY NEWS ANALYSIS

Monthly DNA

15 Jan, 2021

21 Min Read

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Paper	Topics	Subject
GS-II	India – Afghanistan relations	International Relations
GS-II	Nepal Foreign Minister to meet Jaishankar today	International Relations

GS-II : International Relations Afghanistan

India – Afghanistan relations

On a trip that was kept under wraps before it got underway, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval on Wednesday visited Afghanistan for talks on strategic issues with the leadership in Kabul. The Afghan government said the conversations were about “synchronising efforts to combat terrorism and build peace”.
This is the first visit by a senior Indian official after the Afghan political stakeholders and the Taliban started their reconciliation process last year.
India attended the US-brokered peace pact signing in Doha in February last year. An Indian delegation also attended the inaugural ceremony of the intra-Afghan negotiations in September last year, while External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar addressed the gathering via video conference.
The Afghan National Security Council said Doval and his counterpart, Hamdullah Mohib. held “extensive conversations on issues of strategic mutual interest, including on synchronising efforts to combat terrorism and build peace”.
Doval, who is on a two-day visit, also met Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and “discussed cooperation in countering terrorism and strengthening a regional consensus on the Afghan peace process”, Afghan chargé d’affaires in Delhi, Tahir Qadir said on Twitter.
“Both sides discussed counter-terrorism cooperation and efforts for building regional consensus on supporting peace in Afghanistan,” said a brief statement issued by the Arg, the Presidential Palace.
During the meeting, Ghani said the Afghan security forces are the righteous pillars of Afghanistan’s stability and are fighting on the front lines against regional and global terrorism. “Afghanistan and India, in joint efforts with NATO and the United States, will be able to succeed in the fight against terrorism,” Ghani was quoted as telling Doval.
Doval said that India is willing to continue its cooperation with Afghanistan and is ready to continue talks on common interests, the statement said.
There was no official word from the Indian government, but sources said this was part of Delhi’s quiet engagement with stakeholders in Afghanistan. Zalmay Khalilzad, the US envoy on the Afghan peace process, visited India twice during the pandemic.
Doval also met Abdullah Abdullah, head of the High Council of National Reconciliation. Abdullah visited India in October last year and held talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Doval.
Influential Afghan leader Marshal Abdul Rashid Dostum also visited India in September last year.

Source: TH

Nepal Foreign Minister to meet Jaishankar today

GS-II : International Relations Nepal

Nepal Foreign Minister to meet Jaishankar today

Nepal’s Foreign Minister Pradeep Kumar Gyawali will meet External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Friday for their first face-to-face meeting since the border row led to a slide in ties.
Gyawali, who arrived in New Delhi Thursday afternoon, will co-chair the India-Nepal Joint Commission meeting along with Jaishankar on Friday. This comes against the backdrop of a political crisis in Nepal, where Nepal PM K P Sharma Oli has dissolved the Parliament and is now heading a caretaker government.
“The Joint Commission is an important mechanism that provides the opportunity of reviewing at a high level the entire gamut of our bilateral partnership and providing political guidance to further enhance the special and unique ties that we enjoy. We look forward to constructive discussions on the numerous sectors that encompass our bilateral agenda,” Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said.
On whether there will be talks on the boundary issue, the MEA spokesperson said, “Our position on the boundary issue is well known. Let me say that the JCM and boundary talks are separate mechanisms.”
The Nepal Foreign Minister’s visit comes about a month and a half after the first high-level diplomatic visit to Nepal in November when Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla went to Kathmandu and met the country’s leaders, including Prime Minister Oli and Gyawali, among others.
Sources said that the conversations will pick up the threads from the conversations between Foreign Secretary Shringla’s discussions with PM Oli — the two had a one-on-one meeting, apart from the delegation level talks — which had included a “candid review of the state of the bilateral relationship”, and the potential for bringing India and Nepal closer.

Source: TH

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