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PM’s Kabul mission : Reiteration of friendly ties |
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Har Jeet Singh
The two-day visit by the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, to Afghanistan marks the start of a new dimension in the ties between the two countries. These ties were further cemented by the Prime Minister’s pledge of an additional $50 million of aid for the reconstruction of the war-ravaged country over and above the $500 million granted earlier. The three new agreements in the fields of health, agricultural research and education and the promise of training more Afghan policemen in Indian police academies are continuation of the earlier Indian commitments made by this country to help Afghanistan stand on its feet once again. India and Afghanistan, both victims of terrorism, the source of which is the same, Pakistan, found themselves on the common ground of condemning the menace and promising to cooperate to combat it.
India already executing projects in all parts of Afghanistan in areas such as hydropower and construction, agriculture, industry, telecom, education and health. India has trained Afghanistan policemen at its police academies in Hyderabad and Chandigarh. It has renovated the Indira Gandhi hospital for children in Kabul. It has renovated the hundred year old Habiba school in the Afghanistan capital and it is now constructing the new Parliament building there, the foundation of which was laid by former King Zahir Shah in the presence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. It has been designed by Indian architects and India is financing and supervising the construction of the project. It has donated free planes for Afghanistan Airlines. Further, India is funding and executing the construction of the power transmission line from Pul-e-Khumri to Kabul as well as a sub-station at Kabul. This project is aimed at addressing the problem of acute power shortage that prevails in the Afghan capital.
President Karzai, who incidentally received his college education at Himachal University in the Indian hill resort of Shimla, admitted in an interview that his stay in India and Pakistan shaped him into what he is today. Pakistan, however, been a problem State for both India and Afghanistan. Parked between the two countries and refusing to allow them a direct land access for trade is one reason why India is unable to help Afghanistan fully. Nudged by the United States, Pakistan, is wary of India and Afghanistan coming closer and forging closer economic ties because Pakistan considers Afghanistan as its backyard where India must not make forays. Islamabad allows Afghan goods to trickle down overland to India but refuses India any overland trade and transit rights to Afghanistan, Iran and Central Asia. Islamabad’s reluctance stems from the long-standing desire in Pakistan to convert Afghanistan into its exclusive sphere of influence. The challenge before India and Afghanistan is to nudge Pakistan to overcome the geopolitical legacies of the past and move towards regional. cooperation. When President Karzai visited New Delhi in February this year, he promised to raise with Pakistan the issue of Indian goods being able to enter Afghanistan through Pakistan. Since then, Karzai has visited Islamabad and Musharraf has been to Kabul, but Pakistan remains adamant on not allowing Indian goods to pass through its territory although to meet its own growing shortage of vegetables, it has opened the Wagah border for trucks to ferry onion, garlic.
To overcome the problem, India with the cooperation of Iran mooted a trilateral Chah Bahar project which will improve connectivity between the three countries. Iran Port and Free Trade Zone of Chah Bahar will ease the trade traffic between the two countries. Under the trilateral agreement between India, Afghanistan and Iran, India will construct the road links gaining access to the Central Asian markets.
India’s keen interest in the developments in Afghanistan where both India and Pakistan compete for influence, goes back to the days when President Najibaullah was in power and the Soviet Union was controlling his Government. Eventually, when President Gorbachev replaced Brezhnev in Moscow, he pulled out the Soviet troops who were suffering heavy casualties.
India found its policy failing when the Taliban took over power because it marked the defeat of the Northern Alliance of Ahmed Shah Masood which it was traditionally supporting through money and material. The game once again turned in favour of India after 9/11 when the Taliban which was surviving on the strength of its support from Pakistan became an untouchable. Taliban which was sheltering and supporting Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, and his forces and refusing to hand him over, was put on notice after the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Centre in New York. President Bush’s warning to Musharraf that if you are not with us, means you are with the Taliban forced him to abandon Taliban which ultimately led to a full-fledged US attack on Afghanistan. The Northern Alliance, once again emerged on the forefront when for fear of casualties, the United States allowed its forces to lead the ground attack and capture Kabul. In the interim Government which was formed after the Bonn Conference, Northern Alliance was given a share in the power commensurate to the contribution it made in the defeat of the Taliban.
A key member of the Alliance, Dr. Abdullah Abdullah continues to be the Foreign Minister. In the developments that have taken place since the Bonn Conference the election of President Karzai, the coming parliamentary polls, the losing clout of Pakistan because of Karzai’s charge of Pakistan harbouring Taliban and Al-Qaeda terrorists, who make forays into Afghanistan all these developments are a source of satisfaction to New Delhi. President Karzai has been balancing Afghanistan’s relations with both India and Pakistan, aware of the compulsion of not being hostile to Pakistan. India appreciates his compulsions and welcomes his policy of forging close ties with India without allowing them to come in the way of its relations with Pakistan.
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