By Arul Louis United Nations, Dec 8, : UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric stated that the UN wants humanitarian aid to reach quickly wherever it is needed.He was asked about Pakistan’s holding of medicines and the 50,000 tonnes wheat that India wants to send Afghanistan.
Dujarric stated that humanitarian aid should arrive as quickly as possible wherever it is needed, but did not directly refer to the Afghan situation.
He said, “Let’s check with our humanitarian partners.”
Guterres has repeatedly warned of a food crisis that could result in starvation deaths in the country currently under the Taliban’s control.
However, it appears that there was no international intervention to bring the readily available food to Afghanistan via India.
Pakistan has refused to allow aid trucks from India through its territory to landlocked Afghanistan.
India insists that Pakistan should not place conditions on the delivery or distribution of food aid.
S.Jaishankar, External Affairs Minister, stated last month that “we believe that humanitarian aid should not be subjected to conditionalities.”
He also raised the issue at the trilateral meeting of foreign ministers Sergei Lavrov from Russia and Wang Yi (China), telling them that they needed to work together to ensure humanitarian assistance reaches Afghanistan without any hindrance or politicisation.
Dawn, a Pakistani newspaper, reported that Islamabad said last week that Afghan trucks would be allowed to transport wheat from the Wagah border in India to Torkham in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which borders the Afghan province of Nangarhar.
India, insisting that there should not be conditions, has not responded to this announcement that still bans Indian vehicles.
India’s inability to control the supply line could pose a risk.The wheat may not reach Aghanistan’s most vulnerable people, or it may be used politicallly or labeled as a gift from Pakistan.Pakistan is not in a position to give food aid to the Taliban clients.
In response to Guterres appeal, more than $1B has been pledged to Afghanistan as aid.However, India’s offer of wheat aid would immediately provide relief for the country that is on the verge of starvation after the Taliban takeover.
Mary-Ellen McGroarty, UN World Food Programme’s Afghanistan Country Director Mary-Ellen McGroarty, stated in a press release that while there are legitimate concerns about Afghanistan, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) Afghanistan Country Director Mary-Ellen McGroarty stated that the “innocent people of Afghanistan, the innocent children of Afghanistan who have had no fault of theirs, cannot be condemned by the lottery of geopolitics or the lottery of birth to hunger and starvation.”
India’s reservations over the Taliban and past problems with the Taliban as an insurgent terrorist organization, New Delhi offered aid.This now seems to be a victim geopolitics.
New Delhi previously sent wheat to Afghanistan via the Chabahar port, which India helped build in Iran.
It sent 75,000 tonnes worth of wheat through this route last year.
(Arul Louis can reached at arul.l@ians.in or followed @arulouis
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