Nov 14, 2010

Regional Relations

On 21 October, Afghanistan Army Chief, General Sher Muhammad Karimi visited India and held talks with Army chief Gen V K Singh, defence minister A K Antony and defence secretary Pradeep Kumar. Gen Karimi was on his first visit to India after taking over as the new Afghan Army chief and is an alumnus of the National Defence College. Visit of the Afghan Army Chief General Karimi underlined Indo Afghan defence relations which have been long standing and have sustained various phases of the Afghan conflict but for the Taliban period in the country. India has been providing substantial training facilities for the Afghan army particularly for officers training including cadet training and the tradition is continuing right up to the National Defence College (NDC) which has been the alma mater of many senior Afghan generals including the present Chief who has been a special invitee for the NDC’s Golden Jubilee Celebrations.

A joint Russian and US operation to destroy a drug lab in the Eastern province of Nangarhar is seen by many as significant turning point in what may emerge as a future paradigm of cooperation if all facets are explored and carried forward.  While President Karzai has been vocal in castigating the raid involving Russians, indicating his anger even provincial council members, tribal elders and religious scholars joined in the condemnation of the joint NATO-Russian raid. It is reported that two Russians had participated in the same and it was not as if there was large scale Russian participation. There are concerns no doubt that these may be one off events but the nature of the coordination between intelligence agencies may evoke more confidence of a larger role that Russia may like to play in Afghanistan in the long term and the positive content of the same. The key issue remains that a post ISAF scenario may not be as destabilising if all the regional players are willing to play a positive role and the Russian influence may rub off on others in the region as well.

There is also talk of increased involvement of Russians in the country primarily for additional provision of arms and military equipment which Russia sees of long term benefit for the country. One of the key strengths of Soviet Occupation was the Afghan Army when the Soviets left the country. The Russians however could not support and supply the forces subsequently due to their internal economic problems and thus they lacked the arms and ammunition to fight the Mujahideen and the Taliban which emerged subsequently. The other issue that Moscow is worried about is control of drugs in Afghanistan and therefore is keen to ensure that this is checked for it is seen to upstream to Russia resulting in large number of victims of addiction. But on the whole the aim is to expand the presence in the post ISAF scenario.

Another regional dimension that emerged was handing over large sums of cash to President Hamid Karzai’s aides by Iran. This was acknowledged by the President who stated that the US was well aware of the same.  The funds are being used to pay "Afghan lawmakers, tribal elders and even Taliban commanders to secure their loyalty," as per a report in the New York Times. While acceptance of the money by the Presidents office may to an extent leave the issue of such payments to the background, there are concerns that support in cash would be highly unwarranted that too to the personal staff of the President.

 NOV 2010