'Afghan transition process should not sacrifice past gains'

Expressing concern over the security situation in Afghanistan, a senior diplomat today warned the Western countries that the transition process "must not sacrifice the gains of the last decade".
"Security situation in Afghanistan continues to be disturbing, the Taliban's capacity to carry out attacks is evident. Its well-coordinated attacks against US-NATO forces and targeted assassinations of security officials is a disturbing trend," Special Envoy of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Satinder K Lambah said.
He was delivering the keynote address at the the launch of a book 'Afghanistan in Transition: Beyond 2014?' edited by Shantie Mariet D'Souza.
Talking about the points which the international community should keep in mind, he said, "any examination of the current situation must keep in mind some guiding principles which include that any process leading to a settlement must be Afghan owned and Afghan led.

"This in recent past has not been the case as other countries are often driving the pace of the process. The process must not sacrifice the gains of the last decade, the emphasis on reconstruction should continue. The red lines approved in earlier international conferences should be observed.
"Nothing should be done in sudden haste as reversal of trends on security transmission demonstrated in Tokyo, Chicago, London and Kabul conferences could be seen as an act of desperation by the adversaries of Afghanistan," he said.

There must be serious attempts at internal consensus building within different constituencies in Afghanistan so that the ethnic division is not deepened leading to polarisation, he said.

"The growing political competition, natural or on the eve of the elections should not overshadow the election process. No outside interference and elimination of sanctions," Lambah added.
Stressing on the strong ties which Delhi and Kabul share, he said India has a close strategic partnership with Afghanistan that covers a broad spectrum of areas which include political and security cooperation, trade and economic cooperation, capacity development and education and social, cultural and people-to-people ties.