NEW DELHI, India, May 3, Reuter: Afghan President Najibullah will hold two rounds of talks with Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi during a three day visit to New Delhi, an External Affairs spokesman said on Tuesday.
Najibullah will discuss Afghan issues with Gandhi during the visit beginning on Wednesday. He leaves Friday just nine days before Soviet troops backing his government start to withdraw.
The spokesman told reporters it would be Najibullah’s first official visit to India. The Afghan leader made a brief stopover here last December.
Najibullah, accompanied by his Minister and Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs, Interior Minister and five other officials, will also meet Indian President Ramaswamy Venkataraman and Finance Minister Narain Dutt Tiwari.
Afghan Finance Minister Mohammad Kabir last week appealed to the Asian Development Bank in Manila for aid to repair his country’s economy and help refugees return home. The spokesman declined to elaborate on the visit, which follows top level talks on Afghanistan between Pakistani leaders and a special emissary Gandhi dispatched to Islamabad on Tuesday. India has never criticized the presence of an estimated 115,000 Soviet troops in Afghanistan who are dur to start returning home on May 15 after fighting Moslem rebels for nine years.
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