- Wednesday, February 26, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
Russia, Iran and the key Central Asian nations have confirmed their participation at a regional security dialogue on Afghanistan which will be hosted by India on Wednesday (10), official sources on Friday (5) said. National security advisors of the participating nations will meet for the talks on the South Asian country which has been ravaged by war and where the Taliban stormed back to power in August in the middle of the US-led western troops’ withdrawal from the country.
Pakistan has declined the invitation to the event while China, one of Islamabad’s closest allies, was yet to respond to India’s invitation.
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“Pakistan’s decision is unfortunate, but not surprising. It reflects its mindset of viewing Afghanistan as its protectorate. Pakistan has not attended the previous meetings of this format. Its media comments against India are an unsuccessful attempt to deflect attention from its pernicious role in Afghanistan,” Asian News International quoted sources as saying.
Pakistan clearly has no policy to deal with Afghanistan
The sources also said that Pakistan’s media comments to not take part in the dialogue is not surprising and it reflected Islamabad’s mindset of viewing Afghanistan as its “protectorate”.
Indian national security advisor Ajit Doval will chair the meeting. India had formally invited Russia, Iran, China, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan for the dialogue. It is for the first time that all the Central Asian countries and not just Afghanistan’s immediate neighbours are taking part in this format, the sources added.
Two earlier meetings in the same format have been held in Iran in September 2018 and December 2019, the sources said, adding that the third meeting in India could not be held earlier due to Covid-19 pandemic.
“There has been an overwhelming response to India’s invitation. Central Asian countries as well as Russia and Iran have confirmed participation. The enthusiastic response is a manifestation of the importance attached to India’s role in regional efforts to promote peace and security in Afghanistan,” a source added.
