Jun 22, 2011

Indo Afghan Relations –A Revival

India’s Prime Minister Dr Man Mohan Singh on the first visit to Afghanistan announced an additional $500 million aid package for development in the country. The Indian Prime Minister also addressed a Joint Session of the Parliament of Afghanistan reiterating historic relations between the two countries and underlining India’s firm commitment to Kabul. A Joint Declaration was also made between the two countries. The Declaration envisages regular political consultations, the establishment of a Strategic Economic Partnership, education and human resource capacity building, people to people exchanges, regional economic cooperation and cooperation in the area of security and law enforcement. The Strategic Partnership will be implemented under the framework of a Partnership Council which will be headed by the two Foreign Ministers. The Council will be headed by the Foreign Ministers of both the countries and will meet annually. It will consist of separate Joint Working Groups (JWGs) on designated issues of common concern.

The fresh commitment valued at approximately 500 million US dollars over the next few years is being made in specific projects and schemes and other initiatives developed in consultation with the Government of Afghanistan and based on gaps identified in the current assistance programme of USD 1.5 Billion. The additional aid is focused on the social sector, agriculture, capacity building, access to the Indian market and infrastructure projects.[Details of projects are in Box at end of Section].

            The visit of the Indian Prime Minister will doubt open new doors in Indo Afghan relations. The stand of both India and Afghanistan over presence of Osama and other groups in Pakistan and support by Islamabad to terrorism has been vindicated. The increase in aid by India to Afghanistan to $2 billion with a major focus on expansion in small development projects to the tune of $ 100 million should provide India a strong foothold in the country for years to come for these projects would be at the grass roots. At the same time Dr Man Mohan Singh perhaps mindful of the relations with Pakistan kept the issue of terrorism support from that country in general terms. India would now have to focus on political engagement in Afghanistan for there is so much political activity that is ongoing and this opportunity should not be lost as the shift from an active insurgency to a political one is happening slowly and steadily. While leaders as Abdullah Abdullah are major supporters of New Delhi and now even Mr Karzai has also been won over there is a need for expanding contacts to cultivate the other leaders including Pashtoons. Thus more initiatives in the political sphere and delivery of development projects and plans announced would be the way ahead for Indo Afghan relations in the long term despite the likely resistance from Pakistan.

General Abdul Rahim Wardak, Minister of National Defence of Afghanistan came on a three-day visit to India and held talks with Defence Minister Shri AK Antony and other senior officials of the Ministry of Defence and the Armed Forces. Bilateral cooperation issues including capacity building of the Afghan security forces was discussed. Defence Minister Shri AK Antony categorically confirmed India’s commitment to building up Afghan security capability to General Abdul Rahim Wardak, Minister of National Defence of Afghanistan.

There have been periodic exchanges between the Armed Forces of the two countries since General Wardak last visited India in April, 2008. The Afghan Chief of General Staff, General Sher Mohammad Karimi visited India in October 2010. India’s support to Afghanistan in the field of defence and security has been strong and is mainly related to training of Afghan personnel at Indian defense establishments. Now with Afghanistan going for a major fleet of Russian helicopters, this can be extended to maintenance and repair support as well. Beyond this India is unlikely to do more as it would like to keep the regional sensitivities in mind.

Simultaneously India has signed a number MOUs with Afghanistan on Culture, Education and Media.   Afghanistan and India also signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on official statistics to promote technical cooperation between the two nations. Another agreement was the one on providing better opportunities and training for journalists in India and Afghanistan was signed between Indian and Afghan Ministers in New Delhi. Indian media presence in Afghanistan in the news field is limited however India has a large foot print in the entertainment sector and this will have to be cashed on along with assistance to Afghanistan to develop the media sector in the days ahead. The initiative by the Indian I and B Ministry will go a long way in providing requisite support to the country given information and media proliferation around the World and particularly in Afghanistan. The development of effective policies for media freedom as well as ensuring accountability and responsibility are also important.

India is also concerned about a possible early pull out by the US from Afghanistan which may results in likely return of the Taliban or its cohorts to the country at the behest of Pakistan as no dismantling of the Afghan Taliban and Haqqani group infrastructure in tribal areas has taken place. Therefore it is envisaged that just as the Soviet pull out led to fall of the legitimate government in Kabul, a US withdrawal would have the same consequences. While it is not likely that the international community is likely to abandon Afghanistan after 2014, a security foot print on the ground is necessary to ensure that the country is not destabilised by forces from outside for their own ulterior motives. More over with Afghan security forces unlikely to develop substantial conventional capability soon, there would have to be some presence of conventional forces on the ground to maintain balance for which the US may seem the best option for the present.