India reaffirms commitment to promote peace, stability, development in Afghanistan at UNAMA

New York (US) September 18 (ANI): India's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Harish Parvathaneni, reaffirmed India's commitment to promote peace, stability and development in the country.

Addressing the UN Security Council quarterly briefing on Afghanistan, Ambassador Parvathaneni emphasised India's priorities to provide humanitarian assistance and implement capacity-building initiatives for the Afghan people.

"We believe in the utmost importance of international and regional consensus and cooperation on key issues concerning Afghanistan and actively engage with all relevant parties to promote peace, stability and development in the country," Ambassador Harish Parvathaneni said.

"India's immediate priorities in Afghanistan include provision of humanitarian assistance and implementation of capacity-building initiatives for the Afghan people," he added.

He also reaffirmed India's commitment to the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).

Ambassador Parvathaneni expressed gratitude to Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) and Head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), Roza Otunbayeva, for her briefing.

"We value her close cooperation and hope to carry forward the same with UNAMA in the future," he said.

Additionally, Ambassador Parvathaneni highlighted India's assistance efforts when an earthquake of 6.0 magnitude struck Afghanistan.

"India was among the first countries to provide humanitarian assistance. We immediately delivered 1,000 family tents and 15 tons of food supplies to the affected provinces of Afghanistan. An additional 21 tons of relief materials, including essential medicines, hygiene kits, blankets and generators, were dispatched," he noted.

The earthquake that struck southeastern Afghanistan on September 1, resulted in more than 2000 deaths and over 3,640 people were injured, as reported by Al Jazeera.

Moreover, the Indian envoy highlighted India's continuous efforts for the development of Afghanistan over the years.

"In partnership with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, we have provided 84 MTs of assistance and medicines and 32 MTs of social support items for drug rehabilitation programmes, particularly those focused on women. India's scholarships and fellowships to Afghan students. Since 2023, we have provided scholarships for undergraduate and postgraduate courses to 2,000 Afghan students, including nearly 600 girls and women," Parvathaneni said.

Ambassador Harish emphasised the need for the international community to work together to prevent terrorist activities in Afghanistan.

"The international community must coordinate efforts towards ensuring that entities and individuals designated by the UN Security Council, the ISIL and Al Qaeda and their affiliates, including Lashkar-e-Tayyiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed, along with those who facilitate their operations, no longer exploit the Afghan territory for terrorist activities, "he said.

The Indian envoy also welcomed the strong condemnation by the Afghan side of the Pahalgam terrorist attack on April 22, and emphasised the need for a nuanced approach to address post-conflict situations.

"We welcome the strong condemnation of the Pahalgam terrorist attack of April 22, 2025, by the Afghan side," he said.

Furthermore, Parvathaneni advised that Afghanistan need a "fresh approach" to support its people, not the "business as usual" approach.

"Afghanistan needs a fresh approach with hitherto unused policy instruments to support its people who are in such a dire need. 'Business as usual' approach is only expected to maintain the status quo, which is not good for Afghanistan and unlikely to meet international community expectations for Afghanistan's people," he said. (ANI)

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