Aug 22, 2011

India Expands Engagement

            Afghanistan was one of the key subjects of discussion as US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton met up with her Indian counterpart Mr S M Krishna in New Delhi for the Annual Strategic Dialogue. Clinton reportedly reassured Krishna of her country's continued engagement in Afghanistan beyond US troop drawdown. India has urged the United States and its allies to stay in Afghanistan so that insurgents do not get a chance to come back. Expressing concern about the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan, Krishna expressed fears that troop pull-out would give a new push to insurgency in the region. These fears are based on past experience when the pull out of Soviet troops led to collapse of the Afghan government and Taliban coming to power in an order which was distinctly fundamental, working to the minions of Pakistan and thus anti India. Therefore the Indians are wary that such an arrangement would return in case the US pulls out with a weak Afghan force on the ground and President Karzai and the political leadership unable to contain the situation.

            Prof. Burhanuddin Rabbani, and members of High Peace Council (HPC) also visited New Delhi. This is no doubt some good regional balancing by the HPC. While India and Afghanistan have good relations in diverse fields, there is limited political alignment between the two. The role of India in the peace process so far was thus limited. However the bogey of Pakistan will haunt Indian involvement.

India’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting is also providing extensive support to its counter part in Afghanistan. A range of activities have been conducted by the Ministry in the country. These include: training by Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) to various Afghan Journalists. Annually IIMC is training several Afghan journalists sent by the Indian Embassy Kabul. India in the recent past has helped build the full fledged Radio And Television Afghanistan (RTA) Stations at Jalalabad Afghanistan. As part of the capacity building technical process, India is also providing satellite uplinking facilities for the state owned television RTA. BECIL representatives in Afghanistan have earlier helped on various projects to RTA. A process has also been initiated to facilitate the flow of films from India into Afghanistan.

            On the military cooperation front 100 cadets are to be imparted training at the prestigious Indian Military Academy (IMA) in Dehradun every year as part of a commitment to Kabul to help strengthen the Afghan National Army (ANA). After providing only low key assistance in the military field, India is now expanding the same and is more overt with large number of officers being trained in the country along with soldiers and NCOs.  At the same time it would like to keep the sensitivity of Pakistan in mind but given the antipathy that is mutual between Islamabad and Kabul as well, the Afghans are finding India a better option than the offers being made by Pakistan for training. This sizeable strength of officers being trained will provide India a substantial stake in the Afghan Army of the future, which is what possibly will also be worrying Islamabad. But this is the overall geometry of relationship in the region and a cooperative rather than a confrontation mode by India, Pakistan and Afghanistan is ideal though unlikely in the near future.