Indo-Afghan culture week postponed due to security situation in Afghanistan
Aug 17, 2021
New Delhi [India], August 17 : Indo-Afghan culture week, slated for September this year, has been postponed due to the ongoing security situation in Afghanistan.
The cultural event was scheduled to take place from September 2-5 to strengthen cultural ties between the two countries. The cultural week was planned by the Afghanistan embassy in New Delhi and the Indian Council for Cultural Relations.
"It was a few weeks back that we announced the India Afghanistan cultural week, which was supposed to be a four-day-long event in collaboration with the Afghan Ministry of Culture, the Afghan embassy in New Delhi and the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR)," Rahul Banerjee, Managing Director of Raisina House told ANI on Tuesday.
Banerjee said that culture week has been postponed but it will be organised soon.
Talking about the latest development in Afghanistan, he said, "Given the latest developments in Afghanistan and the fresh turmoil that has come up, what we have decided is we will be postponing the event, for now, keeping a close eye on the latest developments, but we will be organising this event in the future."
"From the embassy and Afghan sites, they want to be clear on the state of affairs, before moving ahead with anything, but we are hopeful that we will be organising this event in collaboration with the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in New Delhi and ICCR," he added.
Answering the question of whether this information has been conveyed to the Indian side, he said that "the same hasn't been forwarded to anyone. There is the communication from the Afghan embassy. As for the ICCR, it still awaits official confirmation from the Ministry of External Affairs, which I'm sure will be happening soon. But we look forward to organising this event soon."
Speaking about the invitees from Afghanistan who were supposed to come to India and participate in the cultural week, he said, "We had confirmations from the Deputy Minister of Information and Culture, with Haroon Hakimi, as well as Dr Sahraa Karimi, the chairperson of Afghan films, and other cultural delegations from the country."
On Sunday, the Taliban entered Kabul and took control of the presidential palace after the country's president Ashraf Ghani fled to Tajikistan.
