Afghanistan aid: India, Central Asian nations want UN to play key role

India and the five Central Asian nations on Sunday stressed on the “central role” of the United Nations to respond to the unfolding crisis in Afghanistan, even as Pakistan hosted a meeting of the Organizing of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), which offered to coordinate international humanitarian assistance to the conflict-ravaged country.

Islamabad sought to use the OIC meet to tacitly grant some degree of legitimacy to the Taliban dispensation in Kabul. New Delhi, however, got the support of the five Central Asian nations to once again stress the need for an inclusive government in Afghanistan.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar hosted the Foreign Ministers of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan for the third dialogue between India and Central Asia. They discussed the situation in Afghanistan, where the Taliban returned to power after two decades earlier this year – taking advantage of the withdrawal of the United States and its NATO allies.

Read more: Jaishankar holds bilateral talks with foreign ministers of four Central Asian countries

“Our concerns and objectives in that country are similar: a truly inclusive and representative government, the fight against terrorism and drug trafficking, ensuring unhindered humanitarian assistance and preserving the rights of women, children and the minorities,” Jaishankar told his counterparts from the five Central Asian nations. “We must find ways of helping the people of Afghanistan.”

The joint statement issued after the meeting between Jaishankar and the Central Asian Foreign Ministers too underlined the need for immediate humanitarian assistance for Afghans and preserving the rights of women, children and all ethnic groups in Afghanistan.

New Delhi is keen to deepen its engagement with the Central Asian nations as the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan gave Pakistan a strategic edge against India in the region. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s National Security Advisor Ajit Doval last month hosted his counterparts from the five Central Asian nations as well as from Iran and Russia for a discussion on Afghanistan. The Modi Government is also contemplating to host the leaders of all the five nations in the region as Chief Guests at the Republic Day ceremony in New Delhi on January 26 next year.

Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi too hosted his counterparts from the OIC nations in Islamabad on Sunday. The Foreign Minister of interim government set up by the Taliban in Kabul, Amir Muttaqi, was also invited to speak at the extraordinary session of the OIC. It was apparently a move by Imran Khan’s government in Islamabad to accord some degree of legitimacy to the Taliban’s dispensation in Kabul within the 57-nation bloc.

“The new government exercising control over the entire country – that has secured its geography and territorial integrity, established security, does not pose a threat to any world country and as a ruling system – reserves the right to have formal relations with the world and be a responsible member of the wider international community,” Muttaqi said, addressing the OIC meet.

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan said that the Islamic nations had a religious duty to provide assistance to people of Afghanistan. The OIC Secretary General Hissein Ibrahim Taha called upon the members of the organization to provide humanitarian assistance for people of Afghanistan through its mission in Kabul.