Afghan interested in strategic partnership with India: Spanta

Kabul, Aug 17: Emphasising that Kabul's relationship with New Delhi was not based on choice but a historical fact, Afghanistan Foriegn Minsiter Rangin Dadfar Spanta said his country would like a strategic partnership with India.

In an interview here, Dr Spanta spoke of the commonalities between the two countries, the values the country shares with India and drew attention to his concerns about the terrorism threats facing his country.

Dr Spanta, who took over as the Foreign Minister in April this year replaced the long standing Foreign Minister Dr Abdullah Abdullah. Dr Spanta is close to President Hamid Karzai, having earlier served as his senior adviser on international affairs.

His emphasis on close ties with India underlines Afghanistan's close relationship with India which cuts across political, regional and ethnic differences.

''The relationship with India has a very substantial relevance for Afghanistan's foreign policy. I would like a strategic partnership with India. India is a stable democracy and Afghanistan is a young democracy. We have common values and goals,'' Dr Spanta said.

Speaking of the progress his country has made since 2001, he said considerable development had been made in the areas of democratisation, education and the establishment of a free and independent media. Despite the major achievements, however, Afghanistan continued to face some major challenges from terrorism, narcotics, corruption and a weak state.

''After three decades of destruction Afghanistan continues to face partial destruction today because of interference behind our borders, terrorist activities which sabotage our process of reconstruction and economic and social development,'' he said.

Dr Spanta refused to name any specific country but made his allusion very clear by stating that one of the major problems facing Afghanistan was ''the expansionist foreign policy of some countries who try to use terrorism as an instrument of foreign policy. We Afghans are not part of the problem but part of the solution.'' He said, underlining the fact that the country had come a long way since the Taliban was ousted when Afghanistan was seen as a sanctuary for terrorism and terrorist groups. Afghanistan's foreign policy was based on non-interference, equal partnership and peaceful coexistence. The problem in the war against terrorism was that sources of terrorism were not identified and without the elimination of the sources of terrorism it was not possible to succeed against terrorism. It was ''the task of the anti terrorism coalition to face these sources''.

The Foreign Minister also identified the weakness of the Afghan state and the lack of capacity to deliver services as a problem but asserted that the number of people inside Afghanistan who were dissatisfied and supporting insurgency was only a minority. ''The majority, the leadership centres, the financial centres, the training centres, all of these do not exist in Afghanistan. They are outside. This is insurgency with roots outside Afghanistan.'' What was needed to tackle the problems facing Afghanistan was a combination of steps taken inside Afghanistan to deliver economic and social development to the people as well as for the anti-terror alliance to go against the sources of terrorism said Dr Spanta, expressing hope that a peaceful solution could be found for the problem.

It was necessary on the part of the Afghan government to give a clear perspective to the people whose expectations had been raised unrealistically with the Bonn process. The government capacity to deliver needed strengthening and the security forces also needed strengthening so as to be able to defend the achievements. Currently ''the weakness of he Afghan state'' made it impossible to deliver the services to all parts and ''the security forces are not powerful enough to protect the regions of the country in the South and the South east against the attacks of terrorists and suicide bombers'' he said.

Dr Spanta drew attention to the strategic position occupied by Afghanistan politically and geographically. Geographically ''Afghanistan is part of South Asia as well as part of Central Asia and also has links with West Asia''. In the 21st century, with the importance of Asia, Afghanistan was the land bridge between different parts of the region. Politically and culturally it is ''a strategic part of the democratic world and also a Muslim country''.

The Foriegn Minister said Afghanistan shared a lot of common values with India, US, Europe and other countries including that of ''multiculturalism, pluralist democracy, human rights and women's rights''. On the other hand it was also a Muslim country and part of the Islamic world.

''Afghanistan is the bridge between two civilisations''', he said.

Stressing the importance of the region to his country's foreign policy, Dr Spanta said Afghanistan wanted good relationships with regional countries and good partnerships with the neighbouring countries.

Asked about the difficulties of balancing good relationships with India and Pakistan on the one hand and Iran and the US on the other, Dr Spanta said it was not an easy job. ''It is a difficult job to see how we can develop relationship with countries with very different political systems, different foreign policies and interior policies.'' However, the history of humanity had proved it was possible, he said, pointing to the example of Pakistan and its balancing of relations with China and the US at the same time.

Asked about the Indian role in Afghanistan and the fact that this was a cause of concern to some countries Dr Spanta said, he did not need to ask the permission of any country for good relations with India. The relationship between India and Afghanistan was based on substance. ''It is not something I have to decide. It is historical and between the people. Go out on the streets of Kabul and ask anyone about India. They will tell you, it is a friend, a good friend a friend of Afghanistan in bad days. I accept the decision of my people and work to realise the decision of the people of Afghanistan. This is the desire of the people, the decision of the victims of terrorism and interference.''

UNI