NEW DELHI, Jan 29: India on Saturday supplied the fourth batch of medical assistance consisting of three tonnes of essential life-saving medicines to Afghanistan as part of New Delhi’s efforts to provide critical humanitarian assistance to the trouble-torn country.
The consignment, sent via a flight, was handed over to the Indira Gandhi Hospital in Kabul. “India stands committed to continue our special relationship with the people of Afghanistan and provide humanitarian assistance,” the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement on Saturday.
India has already supplied three consignments of medical assistance, comprising lakhs of doses of Covid vaccines and essential medicines, to Afghanistan in recent months. These too were sent through flights, and handed over to the World Health Organization for distribution and the Indira Gandhi Children Hospital.
Afghanistan taken over by the Taliban in August 2021, is struggling with the pandemic, a drought and economic collapse that have exacerbated the crisis. In the coming weeks, the MEA said, “we would be supplying more batches of humanitarian assistance consisting of medicines and food grains for the people of Afghanistan.
India is also expected to send consignments of wheat for Afghanistan through Pakistani soil from early next month as New Delhi and Islamabad finally agreed on the modalities after months of discussions.
According to Pakistan media reports, initially Islamabad wanted the transportation of humanitarian assistance to Kabul in its trucks under the banner of the United Nations. But India wanted the food grain to be sent to Afghanistan either in Indian or Afghan trucks. The two sides eventually agreed that wheat will be carried by Afghan trucks and a list of Afghan contractors was shared with Pakistan.
Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson Asim Iftikhar Ahmad told reporters on Friday that all arrangements have been made and Islamabad was waiting for the date of the first consignment. India had sent a proposal to Pakistan on October 7 last year, seeking passage to send 50,000 tonnes of wheat and medicines to land-locked Afghanistan via the Pakistani soil. It received a response from Islamabad, allowing transit, on November 24.
Asked about humanitarian aid to Afghanistan at an online media briefing in New Delhi on Friday, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said: “During the last few weeks, 3.6 tonnes of medical assistance and 5,00,000 doses of Covid vaccines have been supplied.” The process to procure wheat and to arrange its transportation is currently underway, he said, adding that this takes some time.
(Manas Dasgupta)