New Delhi: Afghan interior minister Umer Daudzai on Tuesday said his country’s newly installed Ashraf Ghani government was reviewing a peace process launched by its predecessor with the rebel Taliban, adding that the new administration was looking at embarking on the reconciliation process with a fresh approach.

In New Delhi to attend the sixth core group meeting of the Munich Security Conference that reviews global security challenges and government policies, Daudzai also said Afghanistan was looking at China as a new potential stakeholder in the peace process with the Taliban given the country’s close ties with Pakistan, which is the main supporter of the Taliban.

The interior minister described India as Afghanistan’s “all weather" and “time-tested" friend, and cited the fact that the recent change in leadership in India has not affected ties.

When asked about his view of the future of the insurgency-wracked country given that the US-led international troops were to wrap up their 13-year stay in Afghanistan and leave at the end of this year, Daudzai noted that the Afghan security forces presently numbering 350,000 were shouldering all security challenges on their own though with air support from the international forces. “Afghan security forces proved their capacity by securing the two rounds of the Afghan national elections" the minister said, referring to the April presidential elections and the run-off in June.

“In the past three months nowhere in Afghanistan have there been ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) troops on the ground with Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF). All the security operations were led by the ANSF. Of course we depend on ISAF air support and we will continue to depend on their support for at least two more years to come," Daudzai said. “Violence may not cease but the ANSF will be able to defend the people and will be able to defend the Afghan population."

On peace talks with Taliban, Daudzai, a former ambassador to Pakistan, said there was no progress in the efforts made by the previous Hamid Karzai government.

The new National Unity Government in Afghanistan had begun its assessment of “the weaknesses and the defaults in the ( reconciliation) process" begun in 2010 with the setting up of the High Peace Council, Daudzai said.

When asked how many troops would man the Durand Line—the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan—Daudzai said the frontier was guarded by the Afghan border police with the army forming a second line of defence, 5 km into Afghan territory. The porous border has been blamed for Taliban’s resurgence—with those allegedly trained in Pakistan sneaking into Afghanistan to foment the violence.

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