India doesn't want to be involved in Afghan security:Mukherjee

Washington, Jun 30: With the US set to begin drawdown of its troops from Afghanistan next month, India has told the Obama administration that it does not want to get involved in the security affairs of the war-torn country but would continue its developmental efforts there.

This was conveyed by visiting Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee during his interaction with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and National Security Advisor Tom Donilon when he discussed with them the situation in India''s immediate neighbourhood.

"We do not want to get involved in the security affairs of Afghanistan," Mukherjee said in response to a question at the media roundtable yesterday, giving an insight into his talks with Clinton and Donilon.

Mukherjee, who left for India after a three-day US trip, was leading a high-power Indian delegation for the second India-US Economic and Financial Partnership.

"We discussed the overall situation, shared our perception, our relationship of strategic partnership. We discussed the geopolitical situation, what is happening in our neighbourhood, what we could do," he said.

"USA is interested that there should be dialogue between India, Afghanistan and Pakistan. India should also play a pro-active role in Afghanistan. We discussed these issues and the problems as we look at," the Finance Minister said.

US President Barack Obama last week ordered withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan, with 30,000 soldiers leaving initially, a process that would continue until the Afghans take over the security in 2014.

PTI