India steps up development partnership with Afghanistan

India and Afghanistan Monday agreed to enhance cooperation under the New Development Partnership as part of which New Delhi had announced taking up 116 "high impact community developmental projects" in the war-torn country.

The decision to scale up cooperation and collaborate on infrastructure and high impact community development projects was taken at the third meeting of the Joint Working Group on Political and Security Cooperation between India and Afghanistan in Kabul, a Ministry of External Affairs statement said.

India had announced taking up 116 "high impact community developmental projects" in 31 provinces of Afghanistan after a meeting between External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani in New York in September last year.

The outcome of the first and second meetings of Joint Working Group on Political and Security Cooperation between India and Afghanistan were also reviewed and assessed positively on Monday at the meeting co-chaired by Afghanistan's Deputy Foreign Minister Khalil Karzai and Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale.

"Both sides stressed the need to continue working together towards a stable, peaceful and prosperous region that is free from terrorism and extremism," the statement said.

Both sides discussed Indian assistance to Afghanistan and regional issues of mutual interest, and agreed that bilateral cooperation strengthens political and economic stability in the region.

India and Afghanistan also agreed to strengthen security cooperation and the Indian side reiterated its support for an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace and reconciliation process, the statement said.

The two sides also expressed satisfaction over the successful completion of several development projects such as the Afghan Parliament building, Storay Palace, and Afghan-India Friendship Dam.

It was also decided that the fourth meeting of Joint Working Group on Political and Security Cooperation between India and Afghanistan would be held in New Delhi on mutually convenient dates in 2019.