Undeclared Kabul-Islamabad hostilities must end: Ghani

NEW DELHI (Pajhwok): Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Tuesday said a fundamental peace was needed between Pakistan to end the undeclared hostilities between the two neighbours.

Ghani, , who arrived here on a three-day visit on Monday, told India’s leading private TV channel NDTV in an interview that: “Time becomes a litmus test in itself. Here is the test. This year and the years to come. A fundamental peace is needed between Pakistan and Afghanistan because there has been an undeclared state of hostilities. That must end.”

Ghani, who reached India about seven months after assuming power on a delayed visit by few hours owing to a terror attack in northern Kunduz province, said Afghanistan matched words with deeds in fighting terrorism. “When we say we act against terror, we act. We do not just confine ourselves to rhetoric,” he told the channel.

Asked why his visit came seven months after taking over and if New Delhi is less on priority list now, he said: “Der ayad, durust ayad”, an Afghan proverb means ‘late arrival gives better result.’

Ghani, who is meeting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday, said: “I had the pleasure of meeting Prime Minister Modi at SAARC. We’ve really hit it off. We can talk to each other. We’ve had telephonic conversations and high ranking delegations repeatedly. Afghanistan is going to be a platform for regional and global cooperation, not a battlefield for proxy wars.”

He said: “India, because of its democratic values, is interested in partnership and we are interested in forging partnerships that allow us all to benefit. A country that fits in four of five of our foreign policy circles is of enormous significance to us.”

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