india

Updated: Nov 12, 2019 04:10 IST

India and China on Monday began jointly training a second batch of Afghan diplomats as part of their efforts to work together for the development of war-torn Afghanistan.

The two countries had decided to work together on programmes for Afghanistan during the first informal summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping at Wuhan in April last year.

Ten diplomats from Afghanistan are participating in the course. As with the training of the first batch of Afghan diplomats last year, the current batch will spend time at the elite Foreign Service Institute (FSI) in New Delhi during November 11-23 and undertake study tours in India before travelling to China for further training.

Welcoming the participants, FSI dean JS Mukul said a total of 179 Afghan diplomats had been trained at the FSI, more than any other country, according to a statement from the external affairs ministry.

Chinese ambassador Sun Weidong, Afghan charge de affairs Tahir Qadiry, China Foreign Affairs University president Xu Jian and Deepak Mittal, joint secretary (Pakistan-Afghanistan-Iran) also addressed the participants.

India has provided assistance worth $3 billion for the reconstruction and development of Afghanistan and the two sides have close political and security ties.