India told the UN Security Council that the existing sanctions regime on Afghanistan should reflect the country’s changed political reality.
India reiterated its commitment to Afghanistan through humanitarian assistance and development partnerships.
It highlighted work across all 34 provinces and coordination through recent visits by Afghan ministers.
India has said that the current UN sanctions regime on Afghanistan must reflect the country’s changed political reality and stressed the need to encourage constructive actions rather than relying solely on punitive measures.
“We lend our voice again in reemphasising the importance of incentivising positive actions. The political reality of Afghanistan has changed in the last five years and the current UN sanctions regime must take that into account,” India’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Harish Parvathaneni, said.
Addressing the UN Security Council meeting on the ‘Situation in Afghanistan’ on Monday, Parvathaneni argued that the UN and the international community require policy tools designed to benefit the Afghan people and "nudge policy in the right direction rather than only wielding tools of punishment that are yielding diminishing returns.”
Several Taliban leaders remain listed under the UN Security Council’s 1988 Taliban Sanctions Committee following the group’s return to power in Kabul in August 2021.
In October last year, the Taliban Sanctions Committee approved an exemption to the travel ban imposed on Taliban leader and acting Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, enabling him to visit India later that month.
Parvathaneni further said that the long history of close cooperation between India and Afghanistan continues to shape the contemporary relationship between the two countries.
"The proud people of Afghanistan have endured a lot in this century and the Government of India will continue to stand in favour of peace and stability so as to foster development and stability in this nation,” he said.
He also highlighted India’s capacity-building and humanitarian assistance efforts, noting that these initiatives are visible across all 34 Afghan provinces through more than 500 development partnership projects.
"The visits to India of Afghan Ministers last year have ensured necessary planning and coordination so that our support reaches the intended beneficiaries. Generations of Afghans having suffered years of active hostility are now suffering neglect of the international community,” he said.
(with PTI inputs)
