Jaishankar arrives in Afghanistan, to meet Ghani

Kabul: Indian Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar arrived in this Afghan capital on Wednesday on the fourth and final leg of his four-nation Saarc Yatra. He is slated to meet President Ashraf Ghani and other senior officials during the visit.

Jaishankar, who took office on January 28, started his tour of four South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries with a visit to Bhutan on Sunday, followed by visits to Bangladesh on Monday and Pakistan on Tuesday.

The foreign secretary's visit to the Saarc countries is part of India's emphasis on neighbourhood outreach.

Regarding India's relations with Afghanistan, Indian Ambassador to Afghanistan Amar Sinha has said that in the aftermath of Kabul's struggle to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table with the help of Pakistan, and given the improvement in Kabul-Islamabad ties, peace talks should not result in abandoning the control of the Afghan foreign policy to Pakistan, the Afghanistan Times reported on Wednesday.