NEW DELHI, SEPT 1: As the forces unleashed by the Taliban begin to destabilise many areas of the neighbourhood, India and the United States begin their first-ever consultations on Afghanistan in Washington on Thursday.The talks are a reflection of the emerging "convergence of interests" on an issue of vital importance to both New Delhi and Washington, External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh said today.With a renewed outbreak of Taliban-inspired terrorist attacks in southern Kyrgyzstan, India has expressed its solidarity with the Central Asian republic condemning attempts to further destabilise the Kyrgyz Government.Making a veiled reference to the origins of extremists and the presence of the training camps, Singh, in a letter to his Kyrgyz counterpart, stressed the need to stamp out cross-border terrorism.Earlier, the foreign, defence and national security ministers of the four Central Asian republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan had met to coordinate their efforts to counterTaliban-supported terrorism and draw world attention to the attempts to destabilise their governments.The spurt in activity in the MEA with regard to the neighbourhood and the Central Asian region reflects a new activism on Afghanistan and a rejection of what Singh has referred to as India's "supine" acceptance in the past of the situation in Afghanistan.Expanding on what he describes as the "Afghan disorder syndrome" and its fallout on the region, Singh said the political situation in Afghanistan had a profound bearing on the entire subcontinent, linking it to the increase in cross-border terrorism, narcotics trade and the proliferation of small arms in the region.India's views on the Afghan situation and the spread of terrorism have struck a chord with Washington, which, having had a taste of Osama bin Laden's brand of terrorist activity, now appears more appreciative of the urgency in dealing with the issue.After squabbling over Afghanistan for over 20 years, Washington and New Delhi arefinally beginning to see eye to eye on the dangers presented by the Afghan situation. India and the US are also calling for collective multilateral United Nations Security Council sanctions against the Taliban regime.The two MEA officials, Alok Prasad, Joint Secretary (Americas) and Vivek Kathju, Joint Secretary (IPA) will hold talks with their counterparts in the US Department of State, including Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia, Karl Inderfurth, Deputy National Security Adviser, John Steinberg and Assistant Secretary of State for Near East, Martin Indyk.They will also have a round of interactions with think tanks in Washington DC to put across the Indian concerns on the larger regional dimension of terrorism emanating from Afghanistan.As part of the new pro-active policy activism, India has brought up the problem posed by cross-border terrorism in the strategic and bilateral dialogues that New Delhi has conducted separately with France, Russia, Iran, West Asian countries, other Europeanstates and the Central Asian republics."What is being witnessed in the Caucasus or in the Caspain basin is a lot similar to what we experienced for two decades", says Jaswant Singh, adding that clearly, the Afghan disorder was not paid timely or effective attention by the Indian foreign policy establishment.
