India slams Pakistan for not attending NSA-level summit on …

External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi took a dig at Pakistan for not attending the NSA-level meet hosted by India in New Delhi. (File Photo)

India on Thursday slammed Pakistan for not attending a summit over the ongoing developments in Afghanistan following the Taliban takeover of the country.

On Wednesday, India hosted a regional summit in New Delhi on Afghanistan which was chaired by National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval. Pakistan was invited to the NSA-level meeting where Iran, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhtstan attended the summit. However, Pakistan decided to skip the meeting hosted by India over the situation Afghanistan.

Reacting to this, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said,"Pakistan was invited, they did not come. It shows their attitude over Afghanistan issue if they did not come to such important meetings."

The NSA-level summit hosted by India witnessed participation from Iran, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. New Delhi had also invited China and Pakistan to join the talks, but the two countries chose not to accept the invitation.

At the summit, a joint declaration adopted by eight countries asserted that the Afghan territory must not be used for terror activities.

Russia's secretary of security council Nikolai Patrushev, Iran's secretary of the supreme national security council Rear Admiral Ali Shamkhaniand Chief of Kazakhstan's national security committee Karim Massimov were among the officials who were in Delhi to attend a regional dialogue on Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, Taliban reacted positively to the NSA-level meet on Afghanistan and hoped that the dialogue contributes to peace and stability in the region.

Taliban spokesperson Suhail Shaheen told News18 that he saw the meet as a positive development and hoped for it to contribute to "the peace and stability" of Afghanistan.

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