The Kabul Connection

Having been left out of almost every regional effort on Afghanistan because of Pakistans sensitivities,India has shifted gears and started serious discussions....

Having been left out of almost every regional effort on Afghanistan because of Pakistans sensitivities,India has shifted gears and started serious discussions with Afghanistan on setting up two trilateral groupings without Pakistan being part of either of them.

While South Block officials sought to downplay the effort on grounds that no detailed proposal had so far been made,sources confirmed that two initiatives were specifically put on the table - an India-Afghanistan-Iran meeting and an India-US-Afghanistan trilateral. New Delhi is also clear that this is not an anti-Pakistan effort but Islamabads stoic resistance at letting India contribute has left it with little choice.

These ideas were discussed at length with Afghanistan National Security Advisor Rangin Dadfar Spanta during his just concluded visit. It also came up in the conversations with Afghanistan Foreign Minister Zalmai Rassoul,who had visited Delhi in August.

India,it may be recalled,was not invited to the regional meet organised by Turkey earlier this year after Pakistan conveyed its reservations. In fact,Russia also held a summit meet with leaders of Afghanistan,Pakistan and Tajikistan last month,which was the second meet of this quartet. India has so far not been part of any regional initiative on Afghanistan except its own effort to involve it within the SAARC framework.

Taking advantage of the keenness on Kabuls part to raise the level of its partnership with New Delhi,India is said to have broached the issue in recent conversations.

While the Afghanistan leadership continues to be careful about Pakistans sensitivities,sources said,there is growing nervousness about ISIs larger intentions. The reported revelations by Wikileaks that ISI apparently had plans to assassinate Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai have only accentuated concerns.

The plus for India is that Iran is already open to the idea of such a trilateral with Afghanistan,which has further enthused New Delhi. Sources said it is now for Afghanistan to consider the ideas in detail before the conversation can be carried further.

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Kabul is already making an important shift in its approach and is keen that New Delhi plays a more critical role in securing Afghanistan for the long run. In that context,sources said,such fora would be vital in creating a broad framework for stability.

Given that Indian assets in Afghanistan are a chief target of the ISI,India has also been very careful and calibrated in its engagement. So far,the government has been clear that it does not want any Indian defence presence in Afghanistan but with the US withdrawal strategy depending a lot on the evolution of the Afghanistan National Army,Kabul has conveyed it wants New Delhi to play a much larger role.

The understanding here is that Pakistan is gradually being seen as a threat to Afghanistans stability by many in Kabul and so regional initiatives without Pakistan have also become equally important,particularly when Pakistan is clear that it does not want to involve India.