Ajit Doval travels to Afghanistan, meets top leaders to discuss issues of mutual interest

National Security Advisor Ajit Doval on Wednesday, upon reaching Afghanistan's capital Kabul, met the top Afghan leadership and discussed issues of strategic mutual interest as well as on 'synchronising' efforts to combat terrorism. The NSA, who has travelled to Kabul on a two-day unannounced visit, is leading a high-level delegation. Doval called on Afghan President Ashraf Ghani at the Presidential Palace on Wednesday morning.

"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.

President Ghani while speaking with Doval said that the Afghan security forces are the righteous pillars of Afghanistan’s stability and are fighting in 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," President Ghani was quoted as saying during the meeting with Doval.

During his visit to Kabul, Doval also met his Afghan counterpart Hamdullah Mohib. The two held extensive conversations on issues of strategic mutual interest, including synchronising efforts to combat terrorism and build peace.

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Doval meets Abdullah Abdullah

Doval also met Abdullah Abdullah, Chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation, and discussed the peace process, just as the second round of talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban began on January 5. Doval discussed the role of India in establishing peace in Afghanistan.

The influential Afghan leader who helms the peace talks had visited India in October which was his first visit after the formation of a new government in Afghanistan. He had visited when peace talks were underway between the Afghan government and the Taliban in Doha to negotiate a peace deal in a bid to return stability in the war-ravaged country.

The Afghan Taliban peace talks comprised the first-ever initiative of official talks between the two warring sides i.e. Taliban and Afghanistan Government, which began in September 2020 in the Gulf state of Qatar, to discuss peace in the region. The insurgent group Taliban had until then refused to sit for talks, accusing the Afghanistan government of being 'weak and a puppet of the United States'. The first round of peace talks has however resulted in a stalemate.

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