New Delhi
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani today hoped for more defence equipment supplies from India. He welcomed the four Mi-35 helicopters supplied by India as “life savers” and said “more helicopters will be welcome”.

The Afghan President was delivering a public address at the Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF) after discussions with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in one-on-one format, restricted meeting and a working lunch.

“The Indian side agreed to extend further assistance depending upon the needs of the Afghan defence and police forces,” read a statement released after the talks.

The two sides emphasised that “renunciation of violence and terror; and closure of cross-border safe havens and sanctuaries were essential for any meaningful progress and lasting peace”.

In his public interaction, Ghani rejected accusations that New Delhi was creating strategic depth in his country to destabilise neighbours. Without naming Pakistan, he said those alleging so needed to “get out of a world of fiction”.

“There are no secret facilities, no secret destabilisation of neighbours taking place through Afghanistan by implicit or explicit Indian collusion,” said Ghani. Welcoming US President Donald Trump’s South Asia strategy, Ghani called it a game-changer.

He stressed that while Afghanistan had held positive dialogue with Iran, and forged relationships with India and China, the only place where they had not had progress despite trying was Pakistan. There was “intensification of conflict” despite extending the “hand of peace and dialogue”, he asserted.

The South Asia policy and regional security situation will figure prominently in talks between US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and the Indian leadership in Delhi on Wednesday. Ahead of his first official visit to Delhi, Tillerson had paid a surprise visit to Kabul on Monday and told mediapersons: “We have made some very specific requests of Pakistan in order for them to take action to undermine the support the Taliban receives and other terrorist organisations receive in Pakistan. As we’ve said in this whole strategy, this is a conditions-based approach and so our relationship with Pakistan will also be conditions-based.”

Ghani also met with President Ram Nath Kovind who condemned the recent terror attacks in Afghanistan, including in Kabul, Kandahar, Ghazni and Paktia, that killed more than 200 people.