The United States President Donald Trump said on Wednesday, he wants Pakistan, India and Russia to fight the Taliban group in the war-torn country Afghanistan, and expressed his dissatisfaction over India’s old-role effort in the Afghan peace process.
According to news reports, in first US cabinet meeting in 2019, Trump also lashed out on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for establishing and funding a library in Afghanistan, wondering what was the use of library and who would use it.
While responding to a question in cabinet meeting, Trump said: “Why is not Russia there (in Afghanistan, fighting the Taliban)? Why isn’t India there? Why isn’t Pakistan there? Why are we (US) there? We are 6,000 miles away. But I don’t mind. We want to help our people. We want to help other nations.”
Trump cited India’s effort towards development and peace in Afghan country but alleged that the countries were not at all doing enough in Afghanistan and that they were trying to take advantage of the US.
Trump said: “I could give you an example where I get along very well with India and Prime Minister Modi. But he is constantly telling me, he built a library in Afghanistan. Library! That’s like five hours of what we spend (in Afghanistan).”
Trump added saying: “And he (Modi) tells me. He is very smart. We are supposed to say, oh thank you for the library. Don’t know who’s using it (the library) in Afghanistan. But it’s one of those things. I don’t like being taken advantage of.”
While drawing a comparison between the US and other regional country’s effort in Afghanistan peace effort, Trump said, “What other countries have done for the last long period of time is given us some soldiers and then talk about it like it’s the end of the world. And we are subsidizing their military is by billions and billions and billions of dollars, many, many, many times, what those soldiers cost that country.”
When asked about how well India is doing with security in Afghanistan, Trump said, “We are going to be doing something that is right. We are talking to the Taliban. We are talking to a lot of different people.”
Trump said: “But here’s the thing, because you mentioned India. India is there. Russia is there. Russia used to be Soviet Union. Afghanistan made it Russia, because they went bankrupt fighting in Afghanistan. Russia. So you tend to look at other countries. Pakistan is there. They should be fighting. But Russia should be fighting.”
He added: “The reason Russia was in Afghanistan was because terrorists were going into Russia. They were right to be there. The problem is it was a tough fight and literally they (Russia) went bankrupt.”