Deeply concerned over the security situation in Afghanistan, India has told the UN Security Council that the talks of "reconciliation" requires greater caution and said distinctions like "good" and "bad" Taliban could be seen as reflection of "weakness".
"The security situation remains deeply worrying. It does not take much foresight to predict that the coming six months will be difficult, most of all, for the Afghan people," the Indian Ambassador to the UN, Hardeep Puri, said at a special meeting of the Council On Afghanistan.
"Assymetric warfare and complex terrorist attacks are being mounted and the well-springs that sustain such terror show no signs of being drained. We need to ponder deeply over how best this can be achieved," Puri said.
In this context, India continues to have reservations regarding the language used in UN reports to describe terror attacks. Surely such operations are not being mounted by "anti-government elements" or "insurgents", he said.
On reconciliation, Puri said while this is often a corollary of military strategies, in Afghanistan, this is a matter that requires great caution.
Successive reports of the Secretary General, and resolutions in the Council and in the UN General Assembly, have underscored that reconciliation should be an Afghan-led process, within the parameters of the Constitution of the land, Puri noted.
"It has also be been reiterated that this must be pursued from a position of strength. We must consider if we are at this juncture as yet," he said.
"Reconciliation requires strategic clarity, unity of purpose, and due recognition of the nature of those with we seek to reconcile with. Without consensus amongst relevant parties over key issues, such as reconciliation with whom and how, we may well be dividing ourselves; not those we seek to 'peel away' from terrorist groups," Puri said.
"It is for this reason that we must go beyond unworkable divisions between 'good' and 'bad' Taliban. We have equally to be mindful that in pursuing these distinctions we are projecting impressions of weakness, desperation or a defeatist mentality," Puri said.
In a media interview in March, US President Barack Obama had proposed reaching out to moderate elements of the Taliban for reconciliation in Afghanistan, a suggestion that created much controversy.
