'Afghanistan still faces existential terror threat'

Tokyo: India on Sunday said that Afghanistan still faced an existential threat from terrorism emanating from beyond its border and asked the international community to provide substantial assistance to the war-torn nation that has experienced externally-imposed conflicts for three decades.

"While we assist Afghanistan in attaining its long-cherished goal of self reliance, we must also acknowledge that despite our successes in Afghanistan, the basic ideological, infrastructural, logistical and financial infrastructure of terror is still intact in the region," External Affairs Minister SM Krishna said.

Addressing the Tokyo Conference on Afghanistan, Krishna said, "Afghanistan continues to be a country that faces an existential threat from terrorism emanating from beyond its borders - a threat that it is fighting every day, and that it is ill-equipped to repel in the absence of substantial assistance from the international community."

The Tokyo conference is being attended by around 70 countries and international organisations.

The main aim of the meet, which follows the series of conferences organised on Afghanistan during the last one year, include ensuring sustainable development of Afghanistan beyond 2012 and reaffirming partnership between the international community and the Afghan Government until 2014 and during the transformation decade (2015-2024).

"Clear and visible support to Afghanistan is crucial in order to preserve the gains made by the international community and Afghan men and women in the past decade," Krishna said.

He asked the international community to avoid temptation to lay down "conditionalities" on such assistance. India, Krishna said believes that "good governance is crucial to the building of a strong and legitimate state. But good governance also requires a strong state that has full control over its territory. This is not yet the case in Afghanistan."

He appreciated the the Mutual Accountability Framework that has been drafted for the Conference as a noble effort. At the same time, he said India believes that true mutuality can only be achieved at equal levels of capacity.