Thaindian News

Kabul, May 13 (IANS) India and Afghanistan face “similar development challenges” and India is ready to “partner the Afghan people” as they rebuild their country, visiting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Friday.

“Our two countries face similar development challenges, India is ready to partner the Afghan people as they rebuild their country in accordance with their own priorities and national circumstances,” said the prime minister while addressing the joint session of the Afghanistan parliament.

“Many of Afghanistan’s priorities are also our priorities. Many of your problems are also our problems,” he added.

“We fully support the vision of a secure, prosperous and democratic future for Afghanistan outlined in the National Priority Programmes initiated by the government of Afghanistan,” said Manmohan Singh, who is visiting the country after six years.

Saying that he was “humbled by the gesture of love and affection for India” by according him a “rare honour” given to a foreign leader to address the joint session of the parliament, the prime minister highlighted the long cherished relationship between the two countries since many millennia.

“I have come to Afghanistan to renew these ties of friendship, solidarity and fraternity. This is the only agenda that I have come with. This is the only agenda that the people of India have in Afghanistan,” said Singh, who is the first foreign head of state to stay at the personal suite of former Afghan king Zahir Shah in the Presidential Palace, since the fall of the Taliban.

Manmohan Singh said the two countries have to “build a common regional identity and to learn more about each other.”

“We have agreed to reinvigorate our relationship in all sectors on the basis of mutual respect and mutual equality. This will be a long-term partnership. Its main pillars will be greater political interaction, a comprehensive economic partnership, a trade development strategy, a social development strategy, an agricultural outreach strategy, a cultural development strategy, and a civil society strategy,” he stressed.

The prime minister said that India would be “happy” to strengthen and invest on infrastructure, architecture, culture and health, including providing better health facilities for children, to provide more scholarships to students studying in India and to provide more buses for Kabul and other provinces.

“Building infrastructure is another challenge. We have tried to provide such assistance as we could to provide electricity and roads in Afghanistan,” he added.

“The people of India feel privileged to see their development cooperation receive such a warm welcome in Afghanistan. Nothing would give us greater satisfaction than to see Indian resources being utilized for more roads, more electricity, more schools, more hospitals or more community projects - activities that directly benefit the common Afghan people,” said the prime minister, who is returning home later Friday.