Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai is to visit India from May 20-22 in order to communicate the sense of urgency as regards the task at hand in Afghanistan following the departure of the US and Nato forces next year.
The Afghan leader was last been here in November last year.
Making the announcement at a journalistic forum here on Thursday, Afghanistan ambassador Shaida M. Abdali said Mr Karzai’s visit after only a six-month interval spoke of the “strong and deep relations” between the two countries.
Mr Abdali said the President was coming to India to apprise this country’s leadership of developments in Afghanistan and the region. India was best suited to help Afghanistan and the region, the ambassador observed.
Mr Karzai’s focus will be to expand the cooperation in the field of defence beyond training, which India is engaged in at present.
Diplomatic sources said “preventive” or “pre-emptive” measures could also be under discussion to safeguard Afghanistan’s security. This could likely take the form of intensive intelligence sharing and analysis backed by defence-related consultations. Mr Abdali described security as his country’s most pressing need. Sources suggested that Kabul may also be interested in “on-site” training. Issues beyond 2014, when US and Nato forces end their combat mission in Afghanistan, are to be discussed between the Afghan and the Indian leadership. The visiting President is expected to hold talks with President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. He is also slated to visit Jalandhar to receive an honorary doctorate from a private university there.
The ambassador said India and Afghanistan had a shared vision of peace.