India on Tuesday agreed to partner with the UN World Food Programme (WFP) to send 20,000 metric tonnes of wheat to Afghanistan via the Chabahar Port in Iran. The decision was made by envoys during the first summit of the ‘India-Central Asia Joint Working Group on Afghanistan’ in New Delhi.
Representatives from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan attended the working group established at the India-Central Asia Summit in 2022.
The move to supply wheat comes as Afghanistan continues to suffer from a severe hunger crisis that has been magnified by the Taliban’s takeover of power. According to estimates, around 6 million Afghans are on the brink of starvation, and 70% of households cannot meet basic food and non-food needs.
In this regard, a joint statement released by the working group noted that India’s partnership with the WFP aims to “deliver foodgrain assistance” to the Afghan people in light of the food insecurity crisis in the war-ravaged country. It stated that the delivery would include “aid requirements for the year ahead.”
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Moreover, India has agreed to partner with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to counter drug trafficking, including the efforts for rehabilitation of the Afghan drug user population, especially Afghan women.” A UNODC representative said the partnership is meant to fight “the menace of narcotics in Afghanistan.”
India has also offered capacity-building training courses for partner agencies of UNODC and officials from Central Asia in countering illegal drug trafficking.
The participants stressed that the Taliban should not use Afghan territory for sheltering, training, planning or financing any terrorist acts, nor should it provide security to terrorist groups.