Pranab in Kabul, terrorism high on agenda

With both countries facing terrorism emanating from Pakistan, India and Afghanistan have decided to step up information exchange to deal with the scourge.

External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who arrived in Kabul on Wednesday on a two-day visit, discussed cooperation in the field of security and developmental projects with President Hamid Karzai and Foreign Minister Rangin Dafdar Spanta.

After his meetings, Mukherjee said he had had very useful discussions on bilateral issues of cooperation.

Spanta said both the countries face 'same terrorism from the same source', apparently referring to Pakistan which he did not name.

He said the two sides discussed the problem of terrorism and ways to deal with it.

Asked how India and Afghanistan would cooperate to deal with terrorism, Spanta said, 'we have very little cooperation in security and information sharing. We will increase that'.

On whether there should be military cooperation between India and Afghanistan, Spanta said, 'the two countries are victims of terrorism and need to recognise the problem and focus on concrete measure against it'.

"In our region, there are some entities, who use terrorism as tool for foreign policy. This should end," the Afghan Foreign Minister said.

He, however, felt that the civilian government of Pakistan was determined to cooperate in fight against terrorism.