Vershinin, who met Foreign Secretary and other senior officials on Monday, told select media here on Tuesday, “Russian and Indian stances [on Afghanistan] are similar and identical in many respects. They boil down to the fact that now it is premature to talk about recognizing the current government in Kabul. We expect the current Afghan leadership to fulfill the obligations they have assumed, especially with regard to the inclusivity of the government and with regard to other measures, including in the human rights area.”
“It is clear that humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people should be provided, and it is being provided by both us and India. And it should be continued, for reasons including that the 20-year presence of the Americans and their allies in Afghanistan that has caused the situation to become so deplorable these days, including from a humanitarian perspective.”
Taliban has made desperate attempt to get international recognition through meetings like recent Oslo dialogue and through Pakistan as well as China. But both India and Russia — at the highest levels – are of the view that official recognition to the Taliban cannot be offered in a hurry and without an inclusive government in the real sense of the term. Similar views are also held by Iran and Central Asian states.
Vershinin further said, “We have held the planned Russian-Indian inter-ministerial consultations on various issues of the multilateral agenda. India has been in the UN Security Council as a non-permanent member for the second year, and it was interesting and important for us to compare our notes following the results of their first year in the UNSC with regard to all issues on the agenda of the Security Council. The consultations were business-like, detailed and friendly. I can say that these consultations confirmed the desire of both India and Russia to strengthen coordination and interaction on major international issues, including on international platforms – in New York, Geneva and Paris, within the UNESCO. This is what we felt.”
It is understood that there was a detailed discussion on the Ukraine situation during the Russian Minister’s visit. “We informed the Indian Side about our point of view about what is going on around Ukraine and on the tensions fanned by the Western nations, NATO and the United States. We also touched upon issues of insuring strategic stability in this area, the more so as Russia has repeatedly voiced its point of view publicly, and we once again communicated it to the Indian friends.”
