Amid an upsurge in violence in his embattled nation, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani is coming to New Delhi on Wednesday to discuss security cooperation with the Indian leadership as also to request it to expedite work on various India-supported infrastructure projects, including the Chabahar Port.

Ghani will hold talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the afternoon and attend a civil reception in his honour hosted by the India Foundation, a think tank, in the evening before flying back to Kabul.

Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale had last week visited Kabul to extend an invitation to Ghani on behalf of Modi to visit India.

The visit is expected to build upon the recent high-level bilateral exchanges between the two countries.

Informed sources said the two countries would have an opportunity to review the entire gamut of multi-faceted bilateral strategic partnership, including the development partnership, hold consultations and coordinate on furthering the shared objective of promoting peace, security, stability and prosperity in Afghanistan and efforts to combat the menace of terrorism; and discuss regional and global issues of mutual interest.

India is working with Afghanistan to identify priorities and projects where Kabul need New Delhi’s assistance. India agreed to implement some important new projects such as the Shahtoot Dam and drinking water project for Kabul that would also facilitate irrigation, water supply for Charikar city, road connectivity to Band-e-Amir in Bamyan province that would promote tourism, low cost housing for returning Afghan refugees in Nangarhar province to promote their resettlement, a gypsum board manufacturing plant in Kabul to promote value-added local industry and for import substitution, and a polyclinic in Mazar-e-Sharif.

India has also decided to take up 116 high impact community development projects in 31 provinces of Afghanistan.

New Delhi also announced that ongoing programmes for education, capacity building, skills and human resource development in Afghanistan, one of the largest such programmes in the world, would continue for a further period of five years from 2017 to 2022.