Ten months after Donald Trump poser to Narendra Modi, US steers clear of request for troops in Afghanistan

Source:-Ten months after Donald Trump poser to Narendra Modi, US steers clear of request for troops in Afghanistan

About 10 months ago, when US President Donald Trump met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Sofitel Philippine Plaza Hotel in Manila, Philippines, on the sidelines of the ASEAN and East Asia summit in mid-November last year, he made an unusual request.

“Why doesn’t India put troops in Afghanistan?”, Trump is learnt to have asked Modi. Sources said officials from both sides were caught off-guard by the request.

“Modi was flustered,” a source told The Sunday Express and then the Indian side had to gently articulate its rationale for assistance for strife-torn Afghanistan’s reconstruction and development in the civilian sector. India has spent USD 2 billion in development assistance and another one billion USD has been committed for small development projects, Trump was told, after the US administration had announced its South Asia strategy in August last year.

But, this week, when US Secretary of State Michael R Pompeo and US Defence Secretary James Mattis met External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence M, sources said the US request for troops was not reiterated. “They did not go down that road,” a source, who was part of the first-ever Indo-US 2+2 dialogue, told The Sunday Express.

Especially, since almost a year ago — and less than two months before Trump-Modi meeting in Manila — Sitharaman had said publicly, with Mattis by her side in Delhi, that it would not send troops to Afghanistan. She had reiterated that India will continue providing development and medical assistance to Kabul.

On Thursday, when Pompeo and Mattis discussed Afghanistan with Swaraj and Sitharaman, sources said they were appreciative of India’s role and asked India to continue with its development assistance.

Sources said the Indian side expressed its “concern about the security situation” and that it is “crucial” for them to continue work in Afghanistan. This discussion took place against the backdrop of the abduction of seven Indians in Baghlan province in May this year and the killing of an Indian who worked as a chef in August.

They also felt that the “unity of Afghanistan” was “important” and needed to be maintained, and that the infighting between the anti-Taliban groups has to be contained.

The joint statement, after the 2+2 dialogue, said the ministers reaffirmed their shared commitment to a united, sovereign, democratic, inclusive, stable, prosperous, and peaceful Afghanistan. “The United States acknowledged India’s longstanding and ongoing contributions of economic assistance to Afghanistan and also welcomed India’s enhanced role in Afghanistan’s development and stabilization,” the statement said.

And, to carry forward India’s efforts, sources told The Indian Express, Foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale is planning to travel to Afghanistan on Monday for meetings with Afghan officials. He will also attend a trilateral meeting with Afghanistan and Iranian officials.

“This will be his third visit to the strife-torn country and is part of the renewed engagement in the wake of India’s additional one billion dollar commitment made last year. All issues of mutual interest, including the Afghan and Iranian views on the security situation, will be discussed,” a source said.

 

 

 

 

 

Source:- Indian Express

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