Evolving Ties between India and Afghanistan

The Salma Dam which was recently inaugurated during recent Afghanistan visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi jointly with Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani is called the Afghan-India Friendship Dam.

The dam was originally built in 1976 in Herat and it was damaged during the 1990s. it was rebuilt at the cost of $300 million by 1,500 Indian and Afghan engineers. PM had tweeted about the dam that, "This is a project that will irrigate lands and light up homes. The dam is a generator of optimism and belief in the future of Afghanistan."

PM Modi had eloquently also talked about the importance of friendship with Afghanistan. He had said, "India cherishes the friendship with Afghanistan. In Afghanistan, we want to see democracy strike deep roots, people unite and economy prosper.

Afghan President too had reciprocated the feelings by tweeting that, "Salma Dam is another big step in deepening and broadening the relationship between Afghanistan and India."

India and Afghanistan have nurtured the friendship in mutually beneficial way and the friendship was cemented in a big way by Afghanistan when it conferred the country's highest civilian honour Amir Amanullah Khan Award on the Prime Minister.

PM Sh @narendramodi presented Afghanistan's top civilian award. A RARE honour for India.@AmitShah @YuvaiTV pic.twitter.com/zENBmSGQMS

— Dr Jitendra Singh (@DrJitendraSingh) June 4, 2016

The SAARC diplomacy which was part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's swearing in ceremony in May 2014 was enough to bring back the warmth that had gone missing between India and Afghanistan who have shared warmest of relationship since thousands of years.