No military solution to Afghan conflict, peaceful resolution must: Blinken after meeting Jaishankar

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who held wide-ranging talks with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Wednesday, said that there was no military solution to the conflict in Afghanistan, and that there has to be a peaceful resolution that requires the Taliban and the Afghan government to come to the negotiating table. Besides, the two leaders spoke at length over Indo-Pacific engagements, COVID-19 response mechanism and ways to strengthen regional security.

At a joint media briefing, Blinken said both India and the US are committed to the proposition that there is no military solution to the conflict in that country, asserting that there has to be a peaceful resolution that requires the Taliban and the Afghan government to come to the negotiating table.

"We both agreed strongly that any future government in Afghanistan has to be inclusive and fully representative of the Afghan people...Ultimately it has to be an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace process," he said.

Blinken said India "has and will" continue to make a vital contribution to Afghanistan's stability and development. Blinken said there are few relationships in the world that are more vital than the one between the US and India.

Meanwhile, Jaishankar said that the world wishes to see an independent, sovereign, democratic and stable Afghanistan.

He said that the talks between the two leaders took place at an important juncture when key global and regional challenges needed to be effectively addressed.

"Our bilateral partnership enhanced to a level that it enables us to deal collaboratively with larger issues," he said.

Jaishankar said the issue of the coronavirus pandemic was naturally a particular priority. "We discussed travel challenges resulting from Covid," he said.

(With PTI inputs)