India 'among lead countries' facilitating peace restoration in Afghanistan, says Abdullah Abdullah

New Delhi [India], October 8 : Afghanistan leader and Chairman of High Council for National Reconciliation, Dr Abdullah Abdullah on Thursday said that India has been amongst the countries that helped Afghan in its journey towards peace and stability.
"In our journey in the past two decades, many countries have helped us, contributed and made sacrifices alongside our own people. India has been amongst those lead countries in this regard," Abdullah said in his address to the ''Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses' (IDSA) in the national capital today.
The chief negotiator in the intra-Afghan peace process further said that there is a chance to "look at the light at the end of the tunnel" if everyone "works towards restoring peace, stability" of Afghanistan.
"We know that now we have a chance to look at the future -- a future of peace. Afghanistan was peaceful. Despite the tensions, we enjoyed a higher degree of connectivity, trade, transit, people to people relation in all types of exchanges. We might have been on the trail for tourism but no one had to worry about terrorism at that time," he added.
Things soon changed, he said when his country was invaded by the Taliban 40 years ago: "We now have a chance to rebuild the new region, deeper ties and wider connectivity if we can work towards restoring peace, stability of Afghanistan."
Abdullah earlier today met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and re-affirmed the long-term commitment to further deepen India-Afghan ties.
This is the first visit of Abdullah to India after the formation of a new government in Afghanistan.
His visit comes at a time when the Afghanistan government and Taliban are trying to negotiate a deal in order to restore peace in the country.
The peace talks between the Afghanistan government and the Taliban began on September 12 in Qatar's capital Doha.