KABUL

Afghanistan's new ruling Taliban has expressed a desire for good relations with India, and also acknowledged the importance of India regionally.

At the same time, he emphasized that relations with India would be maintained as before.

Taliban leader Sher Muhammad Abbas Stanikzai said in a recent interview that India is an important country in the region and we want good trade and economic relations with them.

In an interview with  Afghanistan today, he added that Afghanistan's trade with India is very important along the way to Pakistan.

We must also keep air trade open with India.

"We attach great importance to India in our trade, economic and political relations and want to maintain relations with India."

During the interview, he expressed his desire to work with India on all these issues.

He said that he was very grateful to the people of Pakistan for sheltering the refugees and our refugees lived there in peace and tranquility for so many years.

We also expect to have good relations with Pakistan, our neighbor. As we have been friends before, we still hope that our relationship will be positive and that we will both pursue non-interference politics.