The Taliban have reacted positively to the NSA-level meet held in New Delhi on the situation in Afghanistan and hope the dialogue contributes to peace and stability in the region.

Taliban spokesperson Suhail Shaheen told News18 that he saw the meet as a positive development and hoped for it to contribute to “the peace and stability” of Afghanistan.

Hosted by National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval, on Wednesday, the dialogue witnessed participation from Iran, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. New Delhi had also invited China and Pakistan to join the talks, but the two countries chose not to accept the invitation.

Read: Security dialogue on Afghanistan will have important implications for the region: NSA Ajit Doval

Suhail Shaheen said the Taliban will support ‘any move that contributes to the peace and stability of the country, provides job opportunities for the people and helps eradicate poverty in the country’.

“If they (NSAs) have said that they will work for the people of Afghanistan for the reconstruction, peace and stability of the countrythat is our objective. The people of Afghanistan want peace and stability because they have suffered a lot in the last few years. Right now, we want the economic projects in the country to be completed and new projects to start. We also want job opportunities for our people. So we agree with what has been said (at the NSA-level meeting),” he told the news portal.

Speaking on Pakistan’s absence from the meet, Suhail Shaheen said, “It is up to the country to decide its position. You can ask them (about it). As far as the people and the government of Afghanistan are concerned, we want peace and stability and resumption of economic activities.”

A joint declaration adopted by eight countries asserted that the Afghan territory must not be used for terror activities. Reacting to this, the Taliban spokesperson said, “Yes, that is our commitment. We agreed in the Doha Agreement that we will not allow any individual, entity or group to use the soil of Afghanistan against another country. The Americans agreed to withdraw their troops. This is all a part of our agreement. Yesterday, I had a meeting with our interior minister, Sirajuddin Haqqani and he reaffirmed that commitment during the meeting. All of our senior leadership abides by that commitment.”

Russia’s secretary of security council Nikolai Patrushev, Iran’s secretary of the supreme national security council Rear Admiral Ali Shamkhani¸and Chief of Kazakhstan’s national security committee Karim Massimov were among the officials who were in Delhi to attend a regional dialogue on Afghanistan.

Sources said there was an “extraordinary degree of convergence” on the assessments of the situation in Afghanistan and the principal challenges in that country and the region.

“These included the security situation, heightened risk of terrorism and the impending humanitarian crisis,” said a source.

“The NSAs noted the need to provide humanitarian assistance and emphasised that the land and air routes should be made available and no one should impede the process,” the source said.

Sources said the officials also stressed that no one should boycott the dialogue process due to bilateral agendas.