New Delhi, July 28 (IANS) A day ahead of talks with British Prime Minister David Cameron, India Wednesday drew attention to leaks documenting Pakistani spy agency ISI’s role in fomenting instability in Afghanistan and underlined that any reintegration of the Taliban should be ‘Afghan-led and Afghan-driven’.
‘The UK is a very valuable interlocutor for India. India is supportive of the Afghan government’s efforts to integrate those elements who abjure violence and abide by the Afghan constitution,’ external affairs ministry spokesperson Vishnu Prakash told reporters here.
‘We are also of the view that any such initiative should be Afghan-led and Afghan-driven,’ said the spokesperson.
He was responding to a question on whether issues relating to Afghanistan and Pakistan will figure in Thursday’s discussions between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his British counterpart David Cameron, who is on a two-day visit to India.
Britain has been a strong advocate of Taliban’s integration into the Afghan mainstream, a proposal that was endorsed at an international conference in London in January this year and was reinforced at a global conclave in Kabul last week.
Cameron arrived Tuesday night in Bangalore. He will hold delegation-level talks with Manmohan Singh and his senior cabinet ministers in Delhi Thursday on a wide range of issues, including invigorating business, cultural and educational ties between the two countries.
When asked about the recent leaks of classified documents by an online whistleblower on the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence’s (ISI) role in fomenting insurgency and anti-India activities in Afghanistan, Prakash said India has made it clear that Islamabad must stop ‘sponsorship of terrorism’ as an ‘instrument of policy’.
‘We have always believed that a stable, secure and prosperous Pakistan is in our interest. We have no objections to other countries giving aid,’ he replied when asked whether New Delhi will sound out Britain on the misuse of aid for alleged anti-India activities.
