INTERVIEW WITH MR TAHIR QADIRY, CHARGÉ D’ AFFAIRES, EMBASSY OF THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF AFGHANISTAN IN INDIA AND CO-CHAIRPERSON IAF (INDIA-AFGHANISTAN FOUNDATION)

It is now over one-and-a-half years since you took charge of this important mission for your country. India is looking to cement its efforts to protect its strategic interests in Afghanistan amid Pakistan’s growing influence in the region and an expected US-troop withdrawal from Afghanistan. What are your views on the subject?

Well thank you so much. It is a pleasure to meet you again even as together we all battle the COVID-19. The India-Afghanistan bond goes back deep in history. Over time, the two nations have gone through thick and thin. After the fall of the Taliban, India has been working hard to strengthen and promote the common values that the two countries have. India has undertaken development projects which really have won the hearts and minds of the Afghan people. The water dam (Afghan-India Friendship Dam in Herat) is one of the largest projects India carried out in Afghanistan and a lot of people are benefiting from it. The India-built House of Parliament is a monument that is testimony that New Delhi believes in Afghanistan’s democratic values. But if I were to highlight one of the biggest achievements in terms of benefits, it has to be the number of scholarships that India has been providing to Afghanistan. Ever since the fall of the Taliban around 70,000 Afghan students have been to India, currently 17,000 students from our country are studying in institutions across India. So the friendship and brotherhood that the two countries have is very unique. That is why Afghanistan signed the first strategic partnership with India.

Also, Afghanistan is at a very critical juncture today. For that reason, it is engaging with the region, especially with one of the most trusted and great partners—India, in terms of the peace talks and its End-State in Afghanistan.