India Pledges Support For Afghanistan During And After US Drawdown

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Swoan Parker / Reuters

U.N. Security Council member Ambassador Manjeev Singh Puriof India (L) listens during a news conference in Port-au-Prince February 13, 2012.

India reasserted late yesterday that terror attacks against its people in Afghanistan will not dissuade it from supporting the war-torn nation during its period of transition next year when US forces are scheduled to drawdown and called for sustained action to root out the “syndicate of terrorism” by terror and extremist groups like the Taliban, Al Qaeda and Lashkar-e-Taiba.

“India does not have an ‘exit policy’ in Afghanistan and will not be deterred by such attacks,” India’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, Manjeev Singh Puri told the UN Security Council debate on UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), referring to the recent killing of Indian author Sushmita Banerjee by the Taliban.

“We do not see this attack as only aimed against India, but also against the efforts of the Afghan people to overcome the tragic consequences of the last several decades of war and conflict,” Puri had asserted.

Calling 2014 an “important watershed for Afghanistan,” he assured that India will continue to “to stand by Afghanistan during this period of transition and thereafter.”