14 September 2016•Update: 17 September 2016
By Abdul Gani
GUWAHATI, India
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani arrived in New Delhi on Wednesday for a two-day visit to India that will focus on terrorism and political violence in the region.
Ghani, on his second visit to India, tweeted that he was “looking forward to some concrete dialogues with our counterparts” before meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In a statement on their discussions on terrorism, the Ministry of External Affairs said: “They agreed that this phenomenon presented the single biggest threat to peace, stability and progress in the region and beyond.”
It added the leaders had called for an end to sponsorship and support of terrorism, including providing “safe havens and sanctuaries to terrorists, including for those who target Afghanistan and India.”
The comments were widely interpreted as a message to Pakistan, which both India and Afghanistan have accused of harboring terrorists.
Afghanistan has drawn closer to India in recent months after overtures to Islamabad aimed at halting the Taliban insurgency appear to have failed.
Modi offered $1 billion for “capacity and capability building” in areas such as education, health, agriculture, energy, infrastructure and democratic institutions as well as proposing to supply affordable medicines to Afghans and cooperation in solar energy projects.
Among the treaties signed or reaffirmed was an extradition treaty, agreements on civil and commercial cooperation, the peaceful use of outer space and security and defense cooperation.
Ghani was due to meet senior business figures and President Pranab Mukherjee later Wednesday.
