India, EU must jointly ensure Afghan soil doesn't become terror breeding ground, says envoy

India and the European Union (EU) jointly need to keep a close eye on Afghanistan and ensure that its soil is not used for terrorism, EU special envoy Tomas Niklasson said on Friday.

By Sahil Pandey India and the European Union (EU) jointly need to keep a close eye on Afghanistan and ensure that its soil is not used for terrorism, EU special envoy Tomas Niklasson said on Friday.

While speaking with ANI, special envoy Niklasson said it's not only India that has concerns about Afghanistan soil being used for terrorism. "It's one of the issues we are discussing. It's one clear commitment by the Taliban-appointed interim government in Kabul to prevent this from happening. But we also see varying developments on the ground," special envoy Niklasson told ANI here.

"So this is something that we jointly need to continue to raise in dialogue, and to keep a close eye on," he added. Niklasson travelled to India after holding talks in Doha over the weekend with a Taliban delegation led by acting foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi.

Niklasson met Foreign Secretary Harsh Shringla on Wednesday and exchanged views on the "current situation in Afghanistan" and agreed to "continue the ongoing coordination between India and EU on Afghanistan". These talks come as Afghanistan is facing economic hardships following the Taliban's takeover in August, resulting in a financial crisis of great proportion.

Over the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan, the envoy said the world needs to ensure that humanitarian assistance reaches people. "We have international staff on the ground in Kabul. We've increased our humanitarian assistance from 60 million to 300 million Euros," said the EU envoy on drought and harsh winter staring at Afghanistan.

He also said, "EU is distributing aid via international organisation and we have experience in working on providing humanitarian assistance to Afghan people for last two decades. "So while the scale is different, urgency is there, this isn't something new for us & we have solid experience to build on." (ANI)

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