PM Narendra Modi to hold virtual summit with Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani; know details

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani will hold a virtual summit on Tuesday, in the first such summit of PM Modi in 2021. In 2020, PM Modi had several virtual summits with his counterparts from Australia, the European Union (EU), Sri Lanka, Denmark, Italy, Luxembourg, Uzbekistan, Bangladesh, and Vietnam.

Both India and Afghanistan share a close partnership. Amid the pandemic, India sent 75,000 tonnes of wheat to Afghanistan and was also able to send more than 20 tonnes of life-saving medicines and other equipment to address the COVID-19 challenge. On February 7, India sent 500,000 India made COVID-19 vaccines to Afghanistan, making it the first country to do so.

The virtual summit will see many announcements including a likely signing of the agreement on Shahtoot dam that will provide clean water to two million residents of the national capital Kabul.

This will be the second dam India will be building in the country after the Salma or India–Afghanistan friendship dam in Herat Province of the country. The agreement was also announced by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar during his address to the Afghanistan Conference in November 2020.