Refusal of China & Pak to attend Delhi Dialogue shows their attitude toward Afghan issue: India

New Delhi, Nov 11 (Bureau) India said on Thursday that the NSA level talks in Delhi which was participated by the top security chiefs of seven countries discussed very important issues related to Afghanistan, and the fact that both China and Pakistan declined to attend the talks “reflects their attitude towards the Afghan issue”. Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi, to a question on the issue at the weekly media briefing, said: “We had NSA level talks, the security chiefs of seven nations were here, the discussions that were held were very good. The officials had wide convergence on many issues, and the advantage of this consensus was that we were able to issue the Delhi Declaration (joint statement). “It dwelt on terrorism, and against terrorism emanating from Afghanistan, and in favour of establishment of an inclusive government there, and on their humanitarian needs. “It was also agreed to continue with this format of dialogue.

These were very important issues on which all the regional countries agreed, and that holding the discussions are very important, and coming to India for the discussions is very important.” “We had invited China to this event, but they declined to attend citing scheduling issues,” he said, adding that “what they do and where they go, I would not like to comment” – on China sending its special envoy for the Troika Plus talks in Islamabad. “And even Pakistan was given an invite, and they declined to come,” he added. “From this, I would like to say that on such an important meeting (by declining to attend) one can gauge their attitude towards the Afghan issue,” he said. The senior security officers from Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, attended the Delhi Regional Security Dialogue hosted by NSA Ajit Doval in New Delhi on Wednesday. While Pakistan conveyed its refusal through the media, China cited “scheduling issues” to decline the invite, but has instead sent its special envoy to Islamabad for the Troika Plus meeting on Afghanistan.