INDIA NOT PART OF RUSSIAN MEET ON AFGHANISTAN

Close on the heels of U.S. plans for a United Nations regional conference on Afghanistan, Russia has announced it will hold a conference of special envoys from the U.S., China, and Pakistan, along with representatives of the Afghanistan government, Taliban and other senior Afghan leaders next week.

Advancing intra-afgahn talks:

• Unlike the UN-led formulation, however, India has not been invited to the Russian conference, adding that Moscow has kept New Delhi apprised of the two-year old “Troika” process involving consultations between U.S., Russia and China.
• A regular meeting of the expanded ‘troika’ is scheduled for March 18 in Moscow at the level of special representatives of Russia, China, the United States and Pakistan, dedicated to the intra-Afghan settlement.
• Apart from the Afghan representatives of the Ghani government and the High Council for National Reconciliation, leaders including former President Hamid Karzai and Qatar’s envoy have also been invited.
• The meeting is expected to discuss ways to assist advancing the intra-Afghan talks in Doha, reduce the level of violence and to end the armed conflict in Afghanistan. A joint statement is expected to be released after the three-day conference.
• An Afghanistan Foreign Ministry spokesperson said the composition of the final delegation that would travel from Kabul was under discussion, but that the Ghani government would participate.

No comment from MEA:

• The MEA declined to comment on India’s exclusion from the meeting, which would be the first such meeting with Afghanistan and Taliban representatives present, ever since the Doha talks process ran into trouble earlier this year.
• Diplomatic sources said the Troika process was an “already established mechanism”, and that there was no attempt to “leave India out” of the proposed talks.
• The sources said Russia is committed to the path of building “regional consensus” for Afghanistan’s peace process, and that it hopes to include India in the talks framework at a later date.
• Moscow “Troika Plus” meeting next week would run “in addition to” and not “counter to” the U.S. proposals for the future roadmap for Afghanistan.
• The proposals include discussions on a ceasefire and power sharing in a “more inclusive” government in Kabul, and indicated that the U.S. is still considering whether to pull out its final 2,500 troops from Afghanistan by May 1 this year.

SOURCE: THE ECONOMIC TIMES