Singh, Karzai plan to meet Musharraf: Economic integration of Central and S. Asia
By Jawed Naqvi
NEW DELHI, April 10: Leaders of India and Afghanistan, meeting here on Monday, set out a blueprint for an economic integration of Central Asia with South Asia and pondered an early meeting with their Pakistani counterpart to implement the agenda that already has the active support of the United States.
As such Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will have a readymade opportunity to go into a huddle with President Gen Pervez Musharraf at the next SAARC summit in New Delhi early next year. This was indicated by the Indian prime minister.
But the Indian Express suggested on Monday that such a trilateral meeting could even take place earlier. President Karzai began a four-day visit on Sunday, shortly after US Assistant Secretary of State for Central Asia and South Asia Richard Boucher presented a strong case in Islamabad and New Delhi for a virtual integration of the two regions under his charge.
Prime Minister Singh and President Karzai also planned a second meeting of the Regional Economic Reconstruction Conference for Afghanistan. It would be held in New Delhi in November. The first meeting took place in Kabul in December last year and had brought together officials from the six nations bordering Afghanistan—Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iran, Pakistan and China — as well as India, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
The leaders of Afghanistan and India said they had already held talks with Gen Musharraf to find a way to overcome the sticky point of transit trade between New Delhi and Kabul via Lahore and beyond.
“We also discussed the security situation in Afghanistan and expressed concern at the increased terrorist activities in some parts of the country,” Dr Singh told a news conference after two rounds of talks with President Karzai.
“It is a particular privilege for us that the first Saarc summit in which Afghanistan shall participate will be in India early next year. We have also agreed that India will host the second Regional Economic Reconstruction Conference for Afghanistan in New Delhi in November this year,” Dr Singh said.
President Karazai lauded India’s role in his landlocked country. He said: “We in Afghanistan have witnessed in the past fo ur years the cooperation and the friendship of India going out of its way to help us with rebuilding our lives in Afghanistan. India’s help in rebuilding the infrastructure of Afghanistan and in helping us in strengthening the institutions of democracy in our country. India’s building of our new parliament is an immense project for us in Afghanistan.
Dr Singh toned down a question he was asked on terrorism, and said while India has been a victim for 20 years Pakistan too had been harmed.
“Terrorism today has acquired new dimensions and I find in our region even Pakistan is not immune from terrorism. So, there is need for pooling our knowledge, our experience, our intelligence gathering activities in this region to deal effectively with this menace which constitutes a great threat to civilized ways of living all over the world,” Dr Singh said.
President Karzai also said that terrorism was “affecting our brothers in Pakistan.”
The question of transit between Afghanistan, Pakistan and India and vice versa is of extremely significant importance to the three countries and also by extension to the region, President Karzai said.
“We have discussed this with my brother President Musharraf in Islamabad and also on his visits to Kabul…Pakistan has already allowed the transit of Afghan goods through Pakistan to India,” The Afghan leader said.
