WASHINGTON: India was using Afghanistan against Pakistan, said Chuck Hagel, former US defence secretary, in a released video during a debate on Afghanistan at the Cameron University in Oklahoma in 2011.
The video of Chuck Hagel’s talk was not released earlier. Now this video has been released by Washington Free Beacon Website.
In the video Chuck Hagel said India has been using Afghanistan as a second front against Pakistan. According to him India has over the years financed problems for Pakistan on that side of the border and you can carry that into many dimensions. He said India has always used Afghanistan for its own war. He said India is creating problems against Pakistan from Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, the Indian Embassy in Washington has decried Hagel’s statement. An Indian embassy spokesperson told the Washington Free Beacon that Hagel’s statement was not grounded in reality.Such comments attributed to Senator Hagel who has been a long standing friend of India and a prominent votary of close India-US relations are contrary to the reality of India’s unbounded dedication to the welfare of the Afghan people, the spokesperson said.
India’s commitment to a peaceful stable and prosperous Afghanistan is unwavering and this is reflected in our significant assistance to Afghanistan in developing its economy, infrastructure and institutional capacities.
The spokesperson seeking to dispel the notion that India may have sponsored terrorism, added that India’s development assistance has been deeply appreciated by the people and the government of Afghanistan and by our friends around the world including the United States and that We (India) do not view our engagement with Afghanistan as a zero sum game.
It is worth mentioning here that former US president Barack Obama had nominated Chuck Hagel for the post of defence secretary while replacing Leon Panetta in 2013. Chuck Hagel served as US defence secretary from 27th February 2013 to 17th February 2015. He resigned from the post after failure of his policies especially policy about Afghanistan.
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