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 benefitting 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 in Afghanistan.

-Mr Tahir Qadiry Chargé D' Affaires, Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in India

The development of the concept of "smart city" in the region and across the world has prompted the academic and administrative bodies in Afghanistan to study the feasibility of it in Afghanistan. It has been less than a decade that the concept and literature of smart city appeared among the engineers and welfare communities in Afghanistan. So the people of Afghanistan have been introduced conceptually to the terminology. The Government of Afghanistan in cooperation with the business community initiated building smart city in the outskirt of Kabul in 2015. Afghanistan is considering possibilities of building smart cities in metropolitan cities of Mazar-e Sharif, Herat, Kandahar and Jalalabad, and then to expand it to other parts of the country.

-H.E. Mr Mohammad Mirwais Balkhi, Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan

It is not so much the conflict of interests to be blamed for, but more the lack of identifying common interests and a sound political and socio-economic paradigm that can bring about a positive change.

-H.E. Mr Shaida Mohammad Abdali, Ambassador of Afghanistan to India