Wuhan consensus: India-China joint training of Afghan diplomats set for launch

Building on the Wuhan consensus forged between their leaders, India and China are set to provide a concrete shape to their plan to cooperate in third countries by launching a joint training programme for Afghan diplomats in October. Reliable sources disclosed that the two Asian powers have worked out a joint programme, under which Afghan diplomats will be trained at Foreign Service Institute (FSI) in New Delhi and at a diplomatic academy in Beijing. The nitty-gritty of the programme was discussed during talks between Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and his Indian interlocutors in New Delhi on September 18. The joint training of Afghan diplomats is set to bolster the Afghan government’s diplomatic apparatus amid a conflicted regional environment in which competing powers are trying to shape a political reconciliation process in Afghanistan. The joint training programme for Afghan diplomats is part of the larger understanding forged between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping during their first summit meeting in the Chinese coastal city of Wuhan in April. The Wuhan consensus, as it is called in strategic circles, was reinforced during the meeting between the leaders of the two countries in Qingdao and Johannesburg. The launch of the joint training of Afghan diplomats in October is expected to set a positive tone for the meeting between PM Modi and President Xi on the margins of the G20 summit of the world’s leading economies in the Argentine capital Buenos Aires (November 30-December 1).